Different
by inu-babe34
Summary: Kagome is completely through with putting up with Inuyasha. She returns back to the feudel era to find that her friends have abandoned her, so she sets off on her own quest to search for the shards of the once again shattered Shikon jewel. summary redo
1. And It Begins

"Mom, I've had enough of him. Inuyasha can just be so stubborn, and every single day I fall more and more out of love with him." Kagome said as she sat at the kitchen table with her mother.

"Kagome, if he's not treating you right, then he doesn't deserve you. You are the most beautiful talented girl I know, and you need someone who will treat you like a queen." Satomi said to her now 19 year old daughter.

"It's not that simple though Mom. I mean, I still love him like a brother. But if I try and talk to a guy he gets all jealous again. I just don't know what to do. He's not in love with anyone, not since Kikyo died again." Kagome remembered that day vividly.

It was the day before they defeted Naraku. Kikyo had come to bring Inuyasha to hell with her. Inuyasha had tried to put it calmly that he had to stay, but she wouldn't have it. She had gone off seeking Naraku, to help her to control Inuyasha to go with her. Naraku convinced Kikyo to help defeat us, but she had failed him. Naraku killed her gruesomely and then came after us. The next day he was in his weakened form, not knowing we would be there so soon. It was still a very long and difficult battle, but we managed to defeat him.

Unfortunately, the jewel was once again shattered. But not by my arrow, but by a sword of some kind. It looked somewhat like soounga, but we knew that was impossible. It had been sent to the netherworld, and it could never come back without the company of it's master.

"Kagome? Kagome, are you alright?" Satomi asked as she waved a hand in front of Kagome's face. Kagome snapped back into reality.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking. Well, I better get going. I don't want to keep everyone waiting on me." Kagome grabbed her new pink and white backpack, and after saying her goodbye's to her family went to the well house. She stared down into it.

"To think, four years ago was the first time I went through you. Sometimes I think sometimes that I was never meant to go to the feudal era. There's just nothing left for me there." Kagome sighed and jumped down. She was enveloped in the beautiful pink light and landed gracefully on the other end. She sensed an unfarmiliar aura in the air.

She slowly crawled up the sides of the well and looked around. Inuyasha wasn't there like he usually was. She decided that he must have gotten tired of waiting and went back to Kaede's village. Kagome started the walk towards the village and slowly came upon it. It looked as if none of her friends were here.

"Kaede? Are you there?" Kagome asked as she knocked on the outside of the old woman's hut. She heard some suffling inside and then Kaede walked out.

"Hello Kagome. Would ye join me for some tea?" She inquired. Kagome nodded her head and followed the considerably shorter priestess inside.

"Kaede, do you know where my friends are? I havn't seen them anywhere." Kagome was beginning to wonder if they were alright.

"Ah yes, they went to hunt for the jewel shards. They thought that you weren't coming back, so they decided that they would come back in two weeks time to see if you were back. They just left three days ago." Kaede explained. Kagome was furious. She had only been gone two weeks. Sure it was more time than usual, but she needed it after that battle.

"I see. Thank you Kaede. I think I'm going to go find some myself." Without waiting for Kaede's responce Kagome jumped up and went on her mission.

_'Fine, if they went on their own to find jewel shards then I'll go find some myself. Besides, I know how to protect myself.'_

Little did she know that there were some very powerful demons lurking around.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe I didn't sense one jewel shard today." Kagome said as she began to make camp. She was headed Westward, and had spent most of the day trying to find something. She could sense that her 'group' had traveled South. Kagome wasn't really in the mood to be humiliated so she decided to make a point that she was just as important and could do things for herself.

"Oh well, there's always tomorrow. I did travel about 5 miles today on my own. I wonder what that old woman said was true. . ." Kagome pondered as she made a fire.

Earlier that day Kagome had passed through a town and saw an old woman just staring at her. When Kagome asked what was wrong, the old woman had told her of an old fable.

_'If you're heading West I suggest you go to the river of Zion. It holds mystical powers that will be able to turn a powerful priestess into a demon.'_ The old woman said coming closer.

_'I'm not really interested in that, but thanks anyways.'_ Kagome was getting a little creeped out now, and was ready to be on her way.

_'You will be. And you had better get there soon, the river is going to dry up in two days. Another five miles from here is where it is. If you drink the water at sunset with a drop of demon blood, you will become that sort of demon. Trust me, you will want to become a demon Kagome.'_ The last sentence had sparked Kagome's interest.

_'Wait, how did you know my name?'_ She asked in wonder_._

_'I am a sooth sayer. I know what's in store for you in the future. Become a demon Kagome, great things will come of it.'_ With that the old woman had walked away, disapearing in the slight haze the village held.

The old woman had scared Kagome a little bit, but she decided that she would try it anyways. What harm could come of it? It's not like it would kill her, and besides she was going that direction anyways. There was only one problem. . .

"Where am I going to get demon blood?" She pondered and thought over her options. She could get Kouga, but she really didn't want to be a wolf, or he would be after her even more. Then there was Sesshomaru, but she didn't think he would draw his own blood for a human. Sure they had become somewhat 'friends', but she was still a human.

Well, she could at least try. She sat down and began to focus on the things around her. It was faint, but his aura was still there. She decided that she needed to find him, so she packed up her things and began her treck towards the aura.

After about three hours straight of walking she had finally seen him. There was their little group in a clearing in the woods. She purposly stepped on some twigs to alert him she was there, so he didn't overreact.

"Miko, what are you doing here?" He asked as he stood up.

"Hello Lord Sesshomaru," she bowed in respect. "I wish to ask of you something important." He nodded signaling she should continue.

"I wish to become a demon. There is a river not too far away from here, where if a powerful priestess drinks the water and a drop of the desired demon's blood she would transform. I have grown significantly in my abilities and wish to become a demon." She ended. She hated talking like that, but it was neccesary to stay on his good side. He smiled at her slightly.

"Hmmmm, what will this Sesshomaru recieve in return?" She mentally cursed herself for not thinking of that sooner.

"What is it you wish my lord?" His eyes glowed in satisfaction.


	2. Searching

"Sesshomaru, what are you thinking?" Kagome asked. She was kind of getting creeped out by the smirk he was wearing. Sesshomaru didn't lose his smirk, but he did tell her.

"Since you are a miko, i'm guessing that you have senced an unusual aura lately." Kagome loosened up, it wasn't going to be something completely bad. She simply nodded her head, signaling him to continue.

"I believe I know who it is. It is very important that we find him, and soon." He ended, his smirk now gone. His normal face of stone now back in it's rightful place. Kagome was concentrating very hard on the aura. Now that she was focusing her energy on it, she could tell that it was indeed very powerful. She closed her eyes and sat down, trying to conserve her energy so it could be used to pinpoint the powerful spirit.

After a few short minutes, she had completed her work. She opened her eyes and found Sesshomaru was standing directly in front of her. By the stern look on his face, Kagome knew that he wanted his answer. And fast.

"I found it. It's about 4 days traveling from here, going north. I can take you to it, now that i've sensed it I can track it in my mind." Sesshomaru nodded his aproval and held out a small vial. He then cut his left palm with one of his claws. He pointed his index finger down and let the flood trickle into the vial. Once it was about a quarter full, he licked his hand closing the wound instantly.

"Here, we shall begin traveling in the morning." He said as he handed her the vile, now topped with a cork to seal it. With that the powerful demon leaned against a nearby tree and closed his eyes. Anyone who would have seen this would have thought he was asleep, but Kagome knew different. She knew he was merely meditating, still very much alert and aware of everything around him. She really did admire him.

Kagome got into her sleeping bag, deciding that she would need her strength tomorrow. Once inside, she couldn't help but wonder why the old woman said she should become a demon. Would there be a battle she has to fight where she would only win if she was a demon? These kinds of questions buzzed through her head for most of the night. Finally just before dawn she fell into a peaceful slumber.

"Miko, it is time that we leave." Said the strong voice of Sesshomaru. Kagome sat up and stretched her soar limbs. Just as she had gotten to her feet she was pushed back down again.

"Kagome-sama!" Squeeled the now eleven year old girl Rin. She had smothered Kagome with a back crunching hug, just as she was waking up. And from what Kagome thought, it was the best way to wake up. She squeezed the girl back, but not enough to alarm her protector.

"Rin-chan, it's been too long." She managed to wheeze out. Rin realized what she was doing and let go.

"Yes, and Rin has missed you. Is it true you are going to become a demon just like my Lord?" She asked in the most adorable voice Kagome had ever heard, well besides Shippo's. The elder girl smiled and nodded her head.

"Well not exactly like him, but yes. I am going to become a dog demon." Rin smiled, and Kagome finally looked at her fully. She was wearing a very thin looking kimono, and her sandals were old and worn. Kagome furrowed her eyebrows and frowned.

"Sesshomaru-sama? May I have permission to give Rin a present?" Kagome asked, clearly wanting to help the girl. She tried to word it carefully, so she did not offend Sesshomaru. He took a look at Rin who looked like she was about to soil her pants she was so excited. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes, and nodded once. Rin laughed and hugged Kagome once more.

"Come Rin, it's in my bag." She said and grabbed the girl's hand. When she opened her bag she rummaged around for the things that she had bought last week.

"Here we are." Kagome said as she pulled out a dark orange kimono with light pink butterflies, and a pair of matching flip flops. She had bought them because she was planning to give them as a gift to her cousin's daughter. But it was well past her birthday, and besides Kagome was sure that Rin would appreciate it more.

"Kagome-chan, are these for me?" Rin said, her eyes sparkling. Kagome nodded, trying to hide her happiness for the girl. For the third time that day Kagome was squished with one of Rin's hugs.

"We are leaving now." Sesshomaru said and got on his demonic cloud. Rin and Kagome quickly shuffled to grab there things and get on Ah-Un. Once in the air, Kagome began to wonder what the transformation would be like. Would it hurt? Why do I keep asking myself all these questions. She sighed openly, not caring who saw or heard.

"Kagome, where are we going? Do you know?" Rin asked from behind her.

"Yes, we're going to the river of Zion. There is where I shall become a demon." Kagome said. She heard a little bit of sniffling behind her. When she turned around there was Rin trying to hide her tears.

"What's wrong?" She asked, very worried for the girl. Rin sniffled a few times and wiped her eyes off with her sleeve.

"Once you become a demon, you won't like Rin anymore." And with that a whole new batch of tears were made.

"Oh Rin, I'l stil like you. Just the physical being of me will change. I'll look different and be stronger, but I'll still be the same person. Don't worry, I could never stop liking you." Kagome said and hugged the girl, almost succesfully making them fall off the two headed dragon. Just then Kagome noticed something, there was something not right.

"Rin, where is the toad?" She asked casually. Rin smiled a bit at this.

"He is at the palace, Lord Sesshomaru said he was being a nosence or something like that." She said and giggled. Kagome wondered what this 'nosence' could be. Oh yes, now she understood. Yes she understood VERY well.

"Do you mean nusence Rin?" She asked giggling. Rin slightly blushed and nodded. Kagome ruffled her hair and so their trip went on.

Around mid afternoon they arrived at the river. Kagome could automatically tell it was the river Zion. It had a very powerful aura, neither good nor bad. It was neuteral, but had some other element to it she could not detect.

"Is this the river Miko?" Sesshomaru said passively. Kagome nodded her head, deep in concentration still trying to understand what was different about the river. Sesshomaru and Ah-Un landed, breaking her concentration. Momentarily.

"I need to wait until susnset. Only then will it work." Kagome said. _'God, why the hell must I talk like this?'_ She thought to herself.

Sesshomaru only nodded his head in responce. He would have to trust someone this once. And deep in the recesses of his mind, this woman is one of the very few he felt comfortable trusting. So until sunset they would wait, in hope that it would work.


	3. Anna and Rachel and Kouga OH MY

Kagome could not stop from twiddling her fingers, she was just getting so nervous. Would she really become a demon? She had never thought about it, but that seemed like something she was truly wanting to do. Being demon would mean she could be able to help more people, herself included.

"Cease your fidgeting, do you sense those auras?" Said the ridgid Sesshomaru. Kagome came back into the real world and immediately sensed two powerful demons coming their way. Withing seconds Sesshomaru had placed Rin on Ah-Un and sent them away. Two female demons were running towards them, laughing. One was a half wolf half dog demon, fairly tall with dark brown hair and a dark blue mini kimono on. She was laughing hysterically and was even hiccuping. The other was a dog and vampire demon wearing a light purple mini kimono, complimenting her dark red hair and dog ears. She was laughing and pointing at her nearly identical companion. They soon went to the river and drank from it, occasionally spraying the water out from laughing.

"What are you doing demons?" Sesshomaru asked, his guard slightly lightened. The inu-vampire looked his way and smiled. She approached him and bowed deeply.

"My name is Anna, and this is my companion Rachel. We're only passing travelers. Delighted to meet you Lord Sesshomaru." For a second Kagome could have sworn she saw Sesshomaru staring at that woman Anna. Kagome smiled, maybe he would actually give this woman a chance. She seemed really nice, and was extremely beautiful.

"The pleasure is all mine." He said and actually took her hand and kissed it. She blushed deeply and smiled back at her friend. Her friend pulled out two daggers, faster than anyone Kagome had ever seen. Kagome then knew why, Kouga had shown up. He stopped in front of Kagome and then looked back at Rachel.

"Hello Kagome. How are you, ready to become my woman yet?" He asked with his usual confident smirk. Kagome frowned, knowing she would have to end this now. She grabbed Kouga's arm and led him over to the bank of the river, leaving the others there to chat.

"Kouga, I really need you to listen to me this time. I'm sorry, but i just don't love you like you love me. And I don't think I ever will. I'm going to become a dog demon, and I need to know that you'll respect my wishes and be nothing but a friend to me. Do you understand? I'm really sorry." Kagome said. Kouga took a deep breath and looked at her with sad eyes.

"I understand Kagome, I hope you find someone for you. I just want you happy, and you'll always be a close friend to me. I should be getting back to my pack. . ." He said sadly and began to stand up.

"Will you at least stay here for the night? I'd really appreciate it." Kouga nodded and began wading to the other side of the river, wanting to be alone for a while. Kagome did feel kind of bad for him, the poor guy must have felt terrible. She decided she was going to go and get something nice for him. Anna and Sesshomaru seemed to be getting along rather nicely, and Rachel looked blissfully happy in her own little world.

Rachel was feeling a little bit down, ever since that wolf had left she had been like the third wheel. Anna and Sesshomaru were really seeming to hit it off. She sighed and began to walk to the wolf, might as well wallow in sadness together right? She dove right into the water and swam over to him. He looked at her and she really couldn't read his expression he was holding.

"Hello." She said and smiled, revealing the tips of her fangs. She walked over to him and sat in front of him, staring him right in the face. He gave her an odd look, but she continued to stare at him.

"What?" He finally asked. She shrugged and backed up. She actually looked a little hurt.

"Nothing, just trying to read your expression is all. You just looked sad. Is there any way I can help?" Rachel asked, grabbing his hand in hers. Both of them felt the immediate spark. He looked up into her purple eyes and could tell she was completely and totally sincere. She didn't know why, but she suddenly had the urge to kiss him, and she noticed for the first time how handsome he really was. He was still slightly wet from the river, well at least compared to herself who was completely soaked.

"You could do this." He said and pulled her onto his lap. He gave her a sexy smirk, making her shiver. He noticed this and held her tight against his hard chest.

"I feel better already." He said, making her giggle. He liked that, he reminded himself to make her do that more often. Maybe a full out laugh would be even better. He then kissed her shoulder all the way up to behind her ear, that got a laugh out of her. She began doing a cute little hiccup along with it.

"Sorry, I never caught your name." Kouga said to her and put his nose to hers, a sign of affection in canines. She laughed again.

"And I doubt you ever will catch it. But it's Rachel. And yours?" She asked, clearly amused with her own cleverness. Kouga chuckled at how much he could be himself around her, and her with him.

"I'm Kouga, leader of the Eastern wolf tribe." He said proudly, why shouldn't he be? He was great in his and everyone else's eyes in his pack. Rachel caressed his cheek with her hand.

"You're so prestigious. You shouldn't even be caught seen with a woman who's half wolf and half dog. It's disgraceful." She said, darkening her mood a litte. She really liked Kouga.

"Nonsense, I didn't even know you were half wolf. Which makes you all the more better in my eyes." He said flirtatiously. They were having a really great time, well at least that was what Kagome thought when she showed up an hour later. The new demons were really getting along great with the guys. This was the first time she had actually seen Sesshomaru without his face made of stone.

After Kagome and the woman Rachel left, it was just me and the beautiful Anna. She was drop dead gorgeous, even by my standards. Her beautiful green speckled eyes had immediately drawn me in. And her fiery red hair captured her spicy personality quite well.

"So Lord Sesshomaru, tell me a little bit about yourself." Anna asked, man wuz she crazy over this guy. Sesshomaru sat down and pulled her down next to him.

"No need for the formalities, we are all equal here." Anna looked stunned when he said this, he had just called her equal to him. The great lord of the western lands. She smiled up at him.

"Then can I do this?" She said and leaned up to him, their lips almost touching. She could feel his hot breath on her face, waiting for his answer.

"You may." He said as his lips collided with hers in the heat of passion. After the long and very hot kiss they both separated slowly, wanting the kiss to last an eternity, which they knew they would last until.

Kagome showed up just in time to see them talking to each other with Anna curled up into Sesshomaru's chest. She just smiled and proceeded to get things ready for her transformation.

It was almost sunset, or better known to Kagome, the turning point of her life.


	4. It's The End

**Hey guys, i'm sorry i haven't updated in so long. Just been busy i guess....and i'm sorry 4 dat, 4 the few of u that DO read this story i hope that u 4give me for being a lazy-ass ^_^ wellllll, i'll just end the intro right here lmao XD *hugs all and waves like a crazy* BTW I do not own Inuyasha or anything related to it, Rumiko Takahashi does. I also don't own GWAR or it's songs, i just use them xD But i own this story line SO STAY AWAY!!!!! hehe =D**

Kagome yawned as she rummaged through her bag looking for a childhood memory. She smiled as she pulled out a little cup, it was a pure silver cup her grandmother had given her when she was about five years old. Her grandmother had been apalled when she found out her mother hadn't gotten her a tea set, so she rushed to the store and bought her a whole set identical to the little cup. Kagome was nearly too old for such things as tea parties, but had accepted the set graciously. Kagome cherished the eatery, for it was the last thing she had to remember her long dead grandmother for.

She walked over to the river, cup and the vile in hand. She kneeled down and filled the cup about half full, being careful not to loose the tiny cup. For a river that was supposed to go dry in two days it sure was fast. Once she filled the cup she pulled out the vile and took out the cork with her teeth, spitting it out a few feet away. Tipping the vile slowly, she made sure that only a drop was put into the river water. Kagome gasped as she saw the blood immediatly begin to sizzle as it hit the water and then transforming the water to look like it all was blood.

Rachel looked over her Kagome's smile, curious as to what she gasped about. "What happened?"

"When I added the drop of blood...the whole thing just seemed to turn into blood." Kagome said confuzed. Earlier when she had came back from dropping Rin off at the castle, herself and Sesshomaru had explained about their quest. After all, they were prettymuch a team now.

Rachel nodded, somewhat confuzed, and walked back to where everybody else was a few yards back.

"Goodluck Kagome." Anna said smiling at her when she looked back. Kagome smiled back at her and then kneeled down and took her first sip of the concotion. Her nose scrunched up in displeasure, but she finished it knowing that it was necessary.

After a few minutes of complete silence, Sesshomaru let go of Anna's hand and walked over to the girl by the river's edge. He squatted down and looked at her face. Her nearly grown out bangs were covering her eyes, but he could tell what had happened. He held out his hand to her and the smaller hand of the young woman grasped his and pulled herself up.

"It didn't work." Was all she said before she walked off to the forest nearby.

"I'll go after her, maybe you could make something for her when she gets back?" She asked Anna. Anna nodded her head and began to prepare. Rachel nodded in thanks and waved to Kouga before she tore off to the forest. Soon enough she found Kagome wandering around aimlessly and sprinted to catch up with her. Soon enough they were walking in step.

"I'm sorry things didn't work out Kagome." Rachel said starting the convorsation.

"It's okay, it was my own fault. I should have never gotten my hopes up about it, only an idiot would actually believe such a far fetched tale like that." She said smiling a little bit.

"Oh come on, I'm not that much of an idiot." Rachel said cracking a smile. "Everyone believed it, it wasn't just you."

Kagome laughed and nodded. "I guess I really didn't want to become a demon, mostly I was just craving a change. Besides, it's not like it will really affect anything." She said smiling. She looked over to Rachel and nodded. "You're a good friend, thanks for trying to cheer me up." Rachel merely blinked in response, not realizing that she had cheered her up, but then just decided to shrug it off. It was at that moment as Rachel shrugged that Kagome saw the light catch something and the light glared into her eyes.

"Rachel, what is that under your kimono?" She asked in utter curiosity. Rachel looked at her puzzled for a minute but then realized what she was asking and pulled out a thin piece of string that was adorned with a small diamond shaped piece of stone, very black and shiny.

"That's beautiful obsidean, where did you get it?" Kagome asked excitedly grabbing the stone, pulling the girl along with it.

"Umm, I don't know what obsidean is...but i got this from my father. He went across the great sea and picked this especially for me." She said smiling and carefully taking back the stone, Kagome was chocking her.

"Oops, sorry." Kagome said releasing it. "Tell me about your family while we walk back."

"Well, my father was a wolf demon. I take after him mostly, well in personality. He was a very strong leader of a pack in the south, and was very kind to me. He taught me mostly everything I know, he's my inspiration to this day. My mother was a dog demon....and we didn't really get along well. The only thing we had in common was our looks, people always said we looked the same. But she was cruel, uncarring, and bitchy....something she carried on to her younger sons. They killed both my parents to try and gain power, but they couldn't trust each other and began to kill each other off until none of them were left. Now the only family that I have left are my two older half brothers, my father's sons from a previous marige. They now share the leadership in our pack. I couldn't stay there though, the memory of him was just too much, so about 15 years ago I set off on my own and met Anna." She said smiling. "She's my best friend and totally amazing. We go and see my brothers sometimes, and once in a while we'll go see her family. " Rachel looked stunned for a second. "Oh my ghord, I think that was the longest explination to a simple question in the history of the world!"

Kagome laughed hard at this. "Well, it told me alot about you. Thanks." She said smiling. "And look, we're almost back to camp."

"Well, that's one good thing about my exteremly long explination. It helps pass the time quickly." She laughed and hiccuped. "You sure did haul ass into the forest huh?"

Kagome smiled shly. "I didn't really want to be found to tell you the truth." Rachel nodded in understanding just as they entered the clearing by the river. Kagome's mouth turned upright into a smile when she saw what was waiting for her. There was so much food there it made her dizzy, Kagome loved food.

"This is amazing!" She said a few minutes later as she was sitting down with her friends around the fire. "Anna, I swear, this food is the best I've ever eaten!" She said and slurped down more of her soup. Sesshomaru nodded and smiled Anna's way. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, but deep underneath Kagome was still a little upset.

After every morsel of food was devoured everyone retired to bed. Sesshomaru and Anna found a tree to lean aganist together, holding hands. Kouga was sitting by the fire with Rachel's head already on his shoulder, sleeping and snoring ever so slightly. As always, Kagome was alone curled up in her sleeping bag a few yards from the fire.

Kagome couldn't sleep at all, she was just too upset. Even though she didn't let on, there was still some major dissapointment lingering just below the surface. Sighing she extended one arm out of her sleeping bag and opened her backpack's smallest pocket. Once she had done that she pulled out her tiny orange MP3 player, smiling the whole time. If there was one thing that could always make her feel better it was her music. She had everything on there that she needed; happy songs, sad depressing songs, crazy songs, angry songs, and anything else you could possibly imagine.

At that particular moment Kagome was feeling a hint of malice towards that stupid river, so she put on her most played metal song. She turned on the orange divice and skipped to song 66, GWAR's Bring Back The Bomb.

_Hiroshima a shadow burned in time, Nagasagi naked baby melts alive! Burnt flesh and rubble from sea to dead shore, such a hideous theater of war!_

Kagome smiled as her song came on, she knew it was absolutly cruel and destructive...but she couldn't help that it made her feel better.

_But that was the end, Why? There are so many more that must die! Is that not part of the plan? I must use the nukes, I can't kill you all with my hands!_

She began to feel a bit weird, almost like a migrane was coming on. She tried to get up, but she couldn't move a muscle. She tried to talk, but not a word escaped her lips.

_Hydrogen bomb, new signs of doom! Thermo-nuclear, neutron bombs too! You say these devices must never be used, I say you're mistaken let's get to the fuse!_

Her body began to pulsate, and it was like she was being boiled, her body felt an immense burning feeling inside and out. She wanted to badly to scream, but she was still immobilized.

_Bring, bring back the bomb! This is state policy, 'by other means' you life ends in terror, this is now decreed! This is the twisting of bloody steel beems, the bomb blows air backwards there's no time to scream! When they tested the A-Bomb they had a real fear, the blast would destroy your sweet atmosphere! But far more important, as power increases, is wasting the planet in well ordered pieces!_

Kagome couldn't breath, it was impossible. Her whole body started to turn a sickly blue color and all of her was twitching. She could feel her aura trying to escape, but it was confined to a small barrier stretching no further than 3 feet from her body. She finally was able to shut her eyes, but the images inside of her head were much more disturbing that what she saw her own body doing. She saw her own body being ripped to pieces, but in the backround she saw an outline of a man and she heard him saying something....but what?

_Bring, bring back the bomb! Bring, bring, bring-Bring back the bomb! Bring back the bomb, it's been far too long! Summon your brazen war charriot! Bring back the bomb, what makes it so wrong? Release the beast you can bury it!_

All the bones in her body seemed to be breaking, she felt them splinter apart quickly but painfully. She knew if she opened her eyes it would be enough to make her vomit, her limbs were twisting every-which-way. Her body was drenched in sweat, probably a result from all the heat within her. The image in her mind was now a little clearer, she could make out that he was very strong, probably a demon. And she could also hear some of what he was saying "Dont....afraid....here....with you....be alright...".

_Why should the fire be shared with so few? Let bombs explode, 'cause that's what they do! Nuke Mecca, New York, the Vatican too; give me a bomb, I'll drop it on you! Why stop at only two? You showed the world just what it can do! What a waste, not to destroy! Come play at war man, and bring your best toys!_

Kagome struggled to open her eyes and to try and breath, even the simplest of tasks were now becoming a difficult feat. She knew if she opened her eyes she would probably hurl, but maybe she could choke on her own puke and die, because death didn't seem like too bad of an option at that point. Finally her eyes slowly opened and the sight of her own body was sickening to her, just as she suspected. Her body looked completly mangled; it had cuts and bruises marring it, all of her bones were broken with some even poking through the skin, her arms and legs were bent in ackward unnatural positions, and on top of all that her skin was litterally crawling over her shattered bones. She then noticed she somehow was out of her sleeping bag.

_Who gives a fuck about a nuclear war? Let bombs explode, 'cause that's what they're for! Last minute warning, the sirens they sing! Chaos, the reason, death what we bring! Humans now look to the sky! You worship missels, yet they know no side! I guess it all was a lie, so grab ass with both hands, it's your turn to die! Die, it's your turn to die! Die, it's your turn to die! Lies, they killed you with lies! Die, human, die!_

Kagome looked up around her to see everyone in their group hovering above her worrying. She wanted to comfort them saying 'I'm fine you guys, go back to sleep and stop worrying.', but she knew that she couldn't. And even if she could they wouldn't believe her for a second. Even though she had opened her eyes, she still heard the mysterious voice. 'I'm here with you, calm down. You will be fine, I swear it.' the voice said to her and with those few words the pain seemed to receed, if only a tiny amount.

_And while we're at it, let's go nuke Tibet! Let's pulverise the oceans with glee! Saving the whales, an agenda for some, nuking them sits well with me! Bring, bring back the bomb! They know not what they do! Bring, bring, bring, bring back the bomb! Bring back the bomb! They know not what they do! Bring, bring, bring, bring back the bomb! Bring, bring, bring, bring back the bomb!_

And then all of the sudden the pain came back with a force ten times what it was before. It washed over her like a Tsunami, dragging and tossing her farther and father into the deep desolate ocean. She could no longer hear the voice, just the presence was left. Kagome didn't know if she would be able to hold on if she couldn't keep that.

_Bring back the bomb, it's been far too long, summon the brazen war charriot! Bring back the bomb, what makes it so wrong? Release the beast you can't bury it! Hoi! What makes it so wrong?!_

As the final words were sung Kagome started to lose vision 'This is the end..' she thought to herself. Then suddenly the music stopped and all she saw was black, then she went completly limp.


	5. The Awakening

**Hey guys ^_^ sorry 4 the wait, but I've been having some...difficulties....in my life. I had a buttload of finals to take, got sent to the principal's for really dumb reasons, got hit on by nasty perverts, got stabbed by a posessed dishwasher, sprained my wrist, and just tore open my leg from a rusty nail in my bed....and now i can't really walk so I decided to write =) haha, that's all true by the way. Anyways, hope you all like the chapter so please tell me what you think at the end! Yeah also I'll be updating more often(hopefully) because I passed school for the year! Yay!**

Darkness caressed her like a silken sheet. She couldn't see, though she felt her eyes open. All of a sudden without warning she saw a small box ahead of her. It was like watching an old movie in a theater, it was somewhat scratchy and in black and white. Seeing herself in the kitchen of her home washing dishes wasn't exactly something she remembered as she did that quite often to help out her mother. All of a sudden a feudal general burst through the back door, panting like a dog. He handed her a scroll and passed out cold on the floor. Opening it up her face hardened as she closed her eyes and her attire automatically changed form as she was now in a black and sky blue slayers suit. Rushing out of the same door the general came in, a large army of demons was there to meet her.

Kagome gasped as she awoke with a start. Groaning in pain she lowered herself back to the ground. Almost automatically she was bombarded by questions spewn out by the two women standing over her.

"Kagome! You're awake! Are you okay?!" The darker haired person asked.

"Do you need anything? Can we get you anything? How are you feeling?" The other one asked, still concerned but calmer than the first. She put the back of her hand onto her own forehead and her eyes untensed a smidge.

"I'm fine, I think...what happened?" She said and coughed. The two looked at each other, faces blanching. They seemed to be comminicating inside of their minds, their facial expressions the only thing giving away their emotions. The brown haired one finally sighed in defeat and looked down at her, dabbing her forehead with a damp piece of cloth.

"Well, you remember when you went to bed don't you?" Kagome nodded and Rachel proceeded, "Well, everyone else had fallen asleep. Anna awoke to a snapping sound, thinking someobody was stepping on a twig, sneaking up on our camp. When she sensed nobody else was there, she looked around and noticed you. I then awoke when her aura went into a panic, and the guys did as well. We thought you were dying, surely you remember what was happening? It seemed as though you were awake and concious."

It was then Kagome realized the full affect of what happened, she remembered the excruciating pain that was inflicted onto her. She remembered the snapping bones, that was probably what had woken Anna up, she remembed her mangled skin, she remembered everything that had happened. But most of all...she rememered the voice inside of her head, the one that had kept her sane that whole time.

"Who else was there?" She asked. Anna and Rachel looked at each other raising an eyebrow.

"Us, Sesshomaru, and Kouga. Nobody else was there or has been here since." One of them said, but she wasn't paying attention who answered. She was engulfed in her own thoughts, that were mainly revolving around that voice. It was deep and rich and enticingly comforting to her. Almost as if on cue, an overwhelming presence washed over her, an arua so powerful that it brought out her powers on full guard. Her powers felt different somehow, almost as if it was not just spiritual miko powers. Looking down at her body she gasped.

"You finally noticed huh? We were wondering how long it would take you to realize. Pay up Rachel." Anna said with a smirk and held out her hand. Rachel scowled and handed her over a few golden coins. "This should get mama a new kimono!" She said and smirked at her compainion who was scowling.

Kagome tried not to let out an exhaspirated sigh, trying not to roll her eyes at the pair. They were good friends, but sometimes they seemed to focus more on irritating each other than seeing the importance of some situations. Deciding to igrnore them, she looked back down at herself a little disbelieving.

She put her hand in front of her face and noticed sharp claws on long elegant fingers, much a difference from her blunt short fingernails on her short somewhat pudgy fingers she once had. Deciding that she needed a better look at herself she decided to go check her image in the river. Standing up seemed to be a much more difficult task than she originally thought. Kagome eneded up crawling with much difficulty to the bank. There was a little slope that she looked over expecting to see a cool clear flowing river, clean enough to see her own reflection. Dissapointment was never a feeling she took very well, but that was what she felt when she was greeted with a completly dried up and sandy river bottom. There wasn't a droplett of water to be found, and she felt herself shake with anger.

"I crawled all that way just to find out the fucking river went and dried up?!" She asked to nobody in particular. It was then she caught the attention of the bickering demons, who were just a hop skip and a jump away, staring at her as though she had completley lost all sanity.

"Kagome, that river dried up days ago. It dried up the day after you lost conciousness, and that was two days ago. Are you thirsty?" Rachel asked walking over and offered her a hand. Kagome gladly accepted the hand and pulled herself up, finding newfound strength within herself.

"I'm fine...I'm a demon aren't I?" She asked and noticed that her hair was a little longer as well as being silver and she was taller, considering when she stood up she was taller than Rachel now.

"You sure are, powerful as hell too. We can all feel it." Anna said and handed her a small mirror. Kagome inspected her face. Her eyes were no longer a soft brown, but a stunning blue silver color. Her features looked more defined and her cheekbones were higher. Pulling her hair back some she realized that her ears were pointed at the tips. Smiling at how truly beautiful she was now, she nearly sliced her lips open with the sharp canine fangs adorning her mouth.

"Not to mention pretty!" Rachel added as she stroked her silver locks, "You'll have to beat off the men with a willow branch!" She said laughing.

"We'll have to go get you some new clothes, yours seem to be too short. Not to mention, they are somewhat odd." Anna said looking over her ripped jeans and shirt that were obviously too tight and short for her now.

"I do suppose you are right. Should we go into the village? I sense one not too far from here, also..." she paused for a moment, "I can smell, humans?"

She watched as her two companions took turns sticking their noses up to the air and sniffed. They looked at each other smiling.

"Wow, we're impressed. Seems that you have prettymuch mastered your newfound abilities faster than we expected, excellent." Anna said smirking and begin clapping with Rachel joining in on the applaud.

Kagome blushed, realizing just how true they were. She sniffed in their direction, trying to determine who was who by their individual scents. It seemed that she could tell very well just by the 'personality' of their scents. Anna's was very calm with a tiny hint of fun, warm vanilla with a tangy hint of raspberry. Rachel's was very different, to say the least; it was a mixture of different things that would normally clash; there was some raspberry like Anna, a smell of a hot pepper, rain, and last but not least a main canvas of freshly fallen snow. Both of their smells together was something to behold, very inticing to Kagome. She tried sniffing again, yet she could not seem to place exactly what her scent was.

"Ummm, guys? I have a question, it's kind of weird, but I want to know. What do I smell like?" She asked, blushing slightly at being so brash. The two smelled again, Rachel closed her eyes and smiled.

"Mmmmm, you smell good Kagome. Like spiced tea, lemon, and..." she giggled a bit "some kind of alcohol." Rachel said and Anna finished for her. Kagome couldn't help but laugh herself, so she smelled like a spiked tea? How oddly pleasant.

"I belive it's something called vodka." Sesshomaru said as himself and Kouga walked over a hill and were now within their line of vision. Anna looked over and smiled at him waving a little over zelous. He tilted half of his mouth up into a half smile directed towards her. Kagome caught this and smiled at the pair. To Kagomes bewilderment when Rachel caught sight of Kouga she scowled and looked the other way and his face turned into a rather large frown. She wondered if perhaps they were quarreling. Kouga all of a sudden charged at her, pinning her to the ground. Rachel in turn snarled and flipped them so she was sitting on top of his chest.

"What took you so long?" She said smirking down at his face that had a goofy smile plastered onto it.

"Sorry, it took a while to find one. It's kind of far away." He sat himself up and helped her to her feet before standing up himself, catching a glimpse of Kagome. "Hey, you're awake!"

"Yeah, what did you find?" She asked curious. Anna and Rachel started giggling in anticipation.

"We sent them to go find a hot spring for when you woke up! Want to go now?!" They asked in unison. Their high pitched screams hurt the males in the group, and Kagome a little bit also. But Kagome couldn't care less, she was so excited to go take a soak!

"Of course!" She squeeled, clapping her hands together excitedly. Soon enought the three were running towards the direction Sesshomaru and Kouga had come back from.

"I see it! It's right behind those trees!" Anna said and began undoing her obi. Rachel did the same and Kagome undid her belt. They went into the steamy clearing and completely undressed and eased into the spring.

"Oh, this is nice. Very very nice." Kagome said and sighing in content. Her companions agreed whole heartedly and lazed around the small spring.

All of a sudden Kagome got unusually tense and a shiver went up her spine, the hair on the back of her neck sticking up. Anna looked over with a quizical face.

"What's the matter Kagome? Is something wrong?" Anna asked her, then she started feeling something too. Rachel soon followed the two and swooped out of the pool and dried herself off quickly and got dressed. Anna did the same and pulled out an extra kimono from her bag and tossed it to Kagome.

"What's this?" She asked. Rachel smiled at her.

"We got you a kimono yesterday while you were asleep. Hope you like it." Rachel said and tied the obi for her. It was a beautiful light blue mini kimono with a silver obi, it went to about mid thigh with flowing sleeves. It was nearly identical to the ones that Rachel and Anna wore, Anna's being dark red and orange now and Rachel's a dark and light pink color.

"I love it, now let's hurry and get back. I have a really bad feeling about this!" With that the trio ran full demonic speed back to the camp and the men in it. Right before appraoching they saw Sesshomaru drawing his sword, a growl forming deep in his throat. Anna rushed by his side and drew her sword also. Rachel stayed beside Kagome until she saw Kouga being threatened. That was the first time Kagome had seen Rachel mad, her eyes flashed a dangerous red and she snarled at the person approaching Kouga. It seemed Anna wasn't any less furious, her ears flattening back and her fangs showing.

"What the hell is going on?!" Kagome practically roared at the group she saw. There standing before her were a defensive demon slayer, monk, an enraged hanyou, a snarling fire neko, and an angrily cute looking kitsune.

"And just who the fuck are you, bitch?!" The half demon asked her. Kagome's eyes widened at the way she was being talked to, also from the fact that it appeared none of them even remotely recognized her.

"I'm Kagome you stupid ass hallf demon!" She felt wind whipping around her face, though she didn't see anything being moved around her. She began seeing everything in red, which matched her mood perfectly as she was beyond pissed off. At that moment she wanted nothing more than to pounce upon him and tear him to shred with her new claws. The half demon's face suddenly changed, he paled and his eyes bugged out of his head much like those of his companions and her own group.

"Kagome, calm down! It's okay!" Rachel said and her and Anna came and they each took one of her arms, luckily that was enough to calm her so that she was thinking straight again. Her sight was back to normal and the wind subsided.

"Kagome..." He said and took a step closer.


	6. Unbelievable

**Hey guys ^_^ I have a concert 2 go 2 tonight and then 2morrow morning i'm leaving for a vacation with my dad, so i'm not gonna be on for about a week or so...so i decided 2 update for all my wonderfuly awesome fans! Yay!! Hehehe, i hope u all like it because i've been working really hard to keep this story going, and make the chapters long(which can be a REALLY big difficulty for me)! I'll try and update when i get back, so until i do bye everybody *hugz and blows a kiss* Also i don't own Inuyasha or anything affiliated with it, but i own this story so....STEP AWAY, STEP BACK, DON'T STEP FORWARD, STEP BACK!!!!! Haha =B --my hillbilly XD**

Kagome was still very much ticked off that her so called 'friends' had tried to attack her and all of her new friends. She stared them all down, clearly dissapointed in their barbaric behavior. The group she used to travel with seemed to hold multiple emotions at once; fear, guilt, shock, and happiness floated in their eyes as they looked at their old pal.

"Kagome-chan, is that really you?" The slayer asked as she took a step forward, dropping her giant boomerang with a thud. Sango saw an elegant silver brow rise in an 'are you seriously asking me this question' manner. Without hardly any warning what so ever, the demon exterminator ran and embraced the waiting form of Kagome.

"I thought you would never realize this, how are you Sango? Not too ravished by the monk i hope." She said sending a mock glare over her shoulder to the smirking monk.

"Kagome! I missed you so much!" Said her bubbly little kitsune as he jumped onto her shoulder and nuzzled his head into the crook of her neck. "Nobody wanted to go, but Inuyasha made us!"

"It's true Kagome, we didn't want to leave you. We knew you would be back soon, and it seems that you only missed us by a few short days, although time had seemed to be dragging on and on since you've been without us." Sango said letting her go and looking her up and down, making sure that she was not harmed in any way, shape, or form.

"Hello lady Kagome." Said the innocent looking monk as he slid his devilish hand onto her bottom. Kagome shot him a warning glance with a smile on her face.

"You know Miroku, I wouldn't reccomend you doing that. These claws do look quite deadly." She said extending them in front of her face, examining them.

"Wench, you have some explaining to do." Said an irritated looking Inuyasha. Kagome looked over to him, wondering how his moods could swing back and forth like a pengalum at hyperspeed. Perhaps he was bipolar. Did people even know about people being bipolar in the feudal era? She would have to ask someone later, or look at some records when she got back home to see when people started being diagnosed with this new disease. Or was it a disorder? Again, there were some things she needed to do some reserch on.

"Hello? Earth to Kagome." Inuyasha said snapping his fingers in front of her face, breaking her of her curiosity driven trance. She blushed slightly as she realized that everyone was staring at her just standing there staring off into space.

"Oh, of course." She said smirking, finding a way to annoy the hanyou. "Well you all know Sesshomaru and Kouga, and these two lovely demonesses are Rachel and Anna." Kagome said brightly and pointing to the two women standing on either side of her. She was right, that did annoy Inuyasha to no end.

He gave her a glare that could freeze hell over, trying to get her to be afraid of him. It had almost always worked on her in the past, but now it nearly made her laugh. Along with his teeth poking out from behind his lips in a snarl, he just looked hilarous to her. He didn't scare her in the least, and she had to bit the inside of her mouth with her remaining dull teeth so that she did not laugh out loud. Althought Kagome wondered just how irritated she could make him by doing just that.

"Not that wench, why the hell are you a demon now?! And just when did you start hanging out with this gang of misfits?! You're with prince iceicle-up-his-ass, a mangy wolf, and two mix breed demonesses!" The enraged half demon pointed out rather loudly. That did it, somebody was going to have to teach him some manners. She was ready to fill that position.

"Inuyasha! You have got to be the rudest, judgemental, ass I have ever had the displeasure to meet! What is your problem?! Just because you have never had a chance to know them you have to get defensive and just plain mean?! That is totally unnacceptable, I can't believe that you would even go so low as to call my new friends mix breeds when you yourself are only a hanyou!" She said showing him her brand new fangs, steping forward until they were face to face glaring at each other.

"At least I'm not some bitch who abandons her real friends for a group of people she doesn't even know! And then threatens them when they find her after looking for days!" He said crouching down, ready to attack her if need be.

"I abandoned YOU?! You abandoned ME!!" She practically screamed, not caring that even the humans were wincing at the loudness and harshness of her voice, "You should be thankful that I'm even speaking to you after you left me, tried to attack me, and insulted me and my friends!"

He growled maliciously and pounced at her, trying to slash at her chest. Quickly dodgeing him Kagome countered his attack and landed a punch to his left arm. Inuyasha wasn't expecting this and stumbled a bit, right into her and they both ended up being pushed down into the dry river bed. They tumbled down the steep overhang, a dust cloud enveloping them both in the process so they were not visible to the people being stupified at witnessing the squabble between the two.

They both landed with a thud at the bottom, neither being able to regain their balance during the fall. While they were at low visibility Inuyasha took the opportunity to punch the woman's face, catching her off guard. While his fist was going full swing she grabbed it and twisted it backwards, recieving a yell of pain from the half demon apponant. Both jumped back a few yards from one another after getting a slight injury, though they couldn't even feel them thanks to the adrenaline rush they were both experiencing. Breathing hard they waited for the dust to settle before continuing the attack.

The onlooker's eyes were widening by the second. It seemed that the two wouldn't stop until the other either submitted or was dead on the ground. They looked into the eyes of both the enraged beings, but could only find one common factor: hate. They were both obviously angry and spiteful towards the other, possibly even other things. It just so happened that they both were taking out their frustrations on the other person, wheather they were aware of that or not.

"Come on Inuyasha, is that the best you've got?" Kagome asked with a false sweetness clearly laced on her tounge.

"You wish that it was my dear Kagome." He bit out, smirking evily at her. They both began circling each other, trying to size the other up. Inuyasha's ears were pressed back against his head and his fangs pertruded out from between his slightly parted lips in a scowl, but his eyes had a certain amused gleam to them showing that he was somewhat enjoying their fight. Kagome's hair was tossled and spewn everywhere, making her look completly wild. Her posture proved otherwise though as she was gracefully calculating each step that she took, crouching down slightly to help keep her balance in case she was attacked first. Inside of her eyes that same gleam was present. Now the question was, were they play fighting? Or were they both looking forward to ripping the other apart limb by limb?

It seemed that Inuyasha's impatient attitude held up it's reputation as he was first to make a move. He bounded up to her claws extended and ready to slash at any given part of her body. She countered and extended her own claws out, but waited in a crouhed position waiting for him to come to her. After all the battles she had seen, she knew it was best for the enemy to come to you so you could have the upper hand. It seemed it worked to her advantage, for just as he was in the air pouncing at her she fell back onto her hands, and raising her feet into the air catching him and flinging him up over her head. With deadly speed before she could turn around he landed a blow to her back, making her skid to a stop before she turned around with a deadly gleam in her eye. This time she decided that she was done being patient and ran at him in a zig zagging flash, punching his stomach with her left fist and then landing a staggering uppercut under is chin with her right, effectivly flinging him onto the ground a few feet away.

Jumping to his feet he glared at the demoness standing a mere yard and a half away from him. He carefully and precisely slashed at his right arm coating his claws in blood.

"Blades of blood!" He yelled out and slashed at the air towards her, sending red glowing blades towards her. As soon as he had cut his own arm Kagome had known what he was pulling. When he let out one of his infamous battle cries and let loose a tirade of murderous blades Kagome made her move. Calling upon what she hoped were her still intact pristess powers, she errected a barrier around each individual blade and then surging electrified spiritual powers through the miniature spheres and completely demolished the demonic blades in a fraction of a second.

Inuyasha wasn't all that stunned that she had used her spiritual powers against him, he figured she would at some point, he just didn't know when she would decide they were needed. What really suprised him though was that she didn't place a barrier around herself, instead she had put up barriers around every single small attack. There must have been nearly a hundred, if not more that he had sent spewing towards her. She was never this powerful before, becoming a demon must have really helped her gain in every area that he was concerned about.

Observing that she was just staring at him and not attempting to make a move towards him, Inuyasha decided that she wanted him to make the next move. He wasn't going to complain, in fact he took the chance quickly without even thinking. With as much speed as he could muster he ran towards her, but this time he noticed that once again she was crouched down waiting for him. Not making the same mistake as last time he jumped over her at the last second, watching as she punched into thin air. Landing on his feet behind her he grabbed her from behind, restraining her for a quick second so he could speak to her.

"You may have stronger spiritual powers and now demonic powers, but I'm still stronger than you. I always will be Kagome, no matter what you do; there is nothing you can do to change that fact." He whispered centimeters from her ears, holding her arms to her side. Unfortunatly there was nothing he could do to restrain her legs, and she took this to her advantage. For a split second it crossed her mind that her next move might be playing dirty and it was wrong, but as soon as he whispered in her ear her mind changed. She quickly brought up her leg and with all the force she could muster she brought her foot back into his croch. Smirking at the horrified gasp from the male behind her she took the opportunity that was opened when he loosened his grip on her for a moment. She got her right arm freed and elbowed him in the face, then turned around in his arms as he toppled back and fell flat on his back with her face to face with him, sitting on his chest.

"That may have been true at one time, but not now. And you will always have on weakness I will never have the displeasure to posses." She said giving him a smirk of her own. He painfully opened his eyes, trying to catch his breath he lost when he fell flat on his back and got the wind knocked out of him. Inuyasha, though in immense pain, wasn't about to accept defeat. He pushed her off of him, watching as she skidded backwards to a stop. Hopping up he wanted to end this, and he intended to.

The male spectators of the fight all groaned at the unimaginable pain they could see Inuyasha was in with Kagome's most recent attack. It looked almost unbearable to them, even to the small Shippo whose eyes were bugging out of his head. The three woman couldn't help but smile at the small victory for the female population. Wheather they were against this fight or not, not one person could deny that it was very entertaining. There was not a dull second of this fight, it was always full of action and suspense.

Inuyasha smirked as he was about to pull an ace out of his sleeve, well scabbard if he wanted to use precise terms. Putting his hand on the hilt of his sword he smirked at the suppresed look of terror on his enemy's face. He knew she wasn't armed and this was all to his advantage. Inuyasha hoped that he wouldn't actually have to use it, that she would just give up; he would use it if he had to though.

Kagome felt herself blanch at the sight of Inuyasha's smirk and his hand dangerously close to drawing his giant sword, Tetsaiga. There was something that even he didn't know though, and that was his tell. She had played cards with everyone around the campfire at one point or another. Because of this, she knew just about everybody's tell. When they were pulling bluffs each and every one of her friends had a little tick. Sango's ears would flush, Miroku's left eyelid would twitch three times, Shippo's tail would bristle, and Inuyasha? Inuyasha's was the hardest to detect, but after just four rounds of pitch she had figured it out. A vein on his neck, her jugular vein if she was correct, would tremble. Right now his tell was showing more than it ever had. She had a feeling he might use it, but not without provocation. No matter how much she told herself not to piss him off more, Kagome just couldn't help herself.

She searched around in her body for some type of youkai aura she could possibly use against him. All the time she was doing this she was backing up slowly, trying to keep the terrified look on her face intact. Finally she found something that could prove to be useful, cautiously she called upon the power that she had found and soon she could see a small nearly transparents outline of a whip begin to form at her fingertips. Seeing that Inuyasha was beginning to become more confident and stalking closer to her, Kagome decided to make her move. As fast as a lightning bolt she activated the poison whip, changing it form a nearly transparent outline to a very real and extremely dangerous weapon.

Inuyasha was a little suprised at this, from what he knew it took years to master the poison whip. Then again, Kagome never was much of a slow learner. She was very aware of her powers, and knew how to use them quite well. When he saw the glowing green poisonous whip appear he then decided to pull out his Tetsaiga, but held off to transform it from the rusty scrap metal into the shining giant fang, for now that is.

"What's the matter Inuyasha? Don't want to hurt little defensless me?" She said and gave him a look of pure innocence, though he knew that she was just mocking him. This made him angry enough to completly forget about the pain he was feeling and in turn transforming his sword into the gigantic fang of his father. Pointing it at the overly cocky woman he smirked, that same evil gleam present in his eyes once more. Just as he was about to pull it back for his signature attack, the windscar, with a mere flick of her wrist she had carved her name with black ash onto the blade. This made him absolutly furious, without even attempting to clean the name off his sword he pulled it above his head.

"Windscar!!" He bellowed and slashed the sword straight down to just above the ground, sending a tirade of wind, light, and energy towards Kagome. He smirked that it had worked to his advantage, she would pay! But as the surge of pure power got closer and closer to the girl he felt guilt start to tug at his heart. What had he done?

Kagome was slightly astonished when he actually used the windscar on her. She saw the ground before her being broken aparts particle by particle, deep gullys being formed and dust flying every which way. Trying to think of a way to avoid being completly demolished, she didn't hardly notice that her whip had receeded back into her body. Now she had no form of protection, she knew her barrier had little to no chance of protecting her. Plus if she used her spiritual powers right after she used her demonic powers she would end up purifying herself. She supposed that the best thing she could do was wait until the last second and then jump as high into the air as she could. Right as she was about to jump a sword flew from the opposite side of the bank that her friends were on and it hovered in the air before her. Without a second thought she grabbed the sword, a metalic bright gold barrier surrounded her whole body, the origin from the sword. As soon as Inuyasha's attack hit the barrier it lost all power, it seemed to dissapate in thin air. Once all the dirt had settled once more she saw the horrified faces of those on the bank and the one other person in the trench with her. The barrier went down and she took this moment to catch him off guard. She pounced upon him and put her claws on his neck, pressing in almost enough to puncture the skin.

"Submit to me." She heard herself growl and Inuyasha moved his head up and to the side, the universal sign of submission. She nodded in approval and got of him, dusting herself off. Finally she noticed the sword that was still in her hand and she screamed. It was soounga! Soon enough it was going to take over her mind and body and she would be a mindless killing machine! She let it go and watched as it just fell to the ground, clinking as the metal hit the hard dry ground. Everyone looked at the evil sword, but not a one could sence anything evil about it. What Kagome couldn't understand was why the sword hadn't tried to take her over. She had in her hand for more than a minute she was sure. Wait, how did the sword get there in the first place?

"What the hell is happening around here?!" She asked herself as she stared in disbelief at the sword of the dead dog general.


	7. Intrusion

**Hillo all ^-^ missed u guys like crazy, thanks 4 all the reviews!! They made me fricken happy on the inside :D Haha, hope u all liked the little fight scene last chapter cuz i worked 4ever to perfect it! Well, without further distraction here is chapter 7! *hugz and blows a kiss* Thanks for reading and please review! PS: I don't own Inuyasha or anything affiliated with it, but i do own the story line SO BACK OFF!! =B hehe hillbilly **

Being told you are special is something everybody longs for. To be an original, to be your own person and stand out from the crowd. Kagome wasn't sure she wanted to be told she was special in this particular field. Being told that she was the sole person who could weild Soounga without being taken over by the sword wasn't something she wanted on her shoulders. Even though she detested the burdon of having to harbour the sword, she took the position with honor. Knowing she was the only person since the great dog general to weild the sword did give her a sense of pride.

Walking in silence seemed to only provoke her naturally curious mind. Looking down towards her left hand she saw the completely untarnished silver blade and the pink stone set in the hilt. It was so puzzling that she could hold the sword, even use it. Well the sword used her more than she actually used it. Not in the way that it had used Inuyasha a few years ago, the purple vines had never sprung from the sword and encircled her arm, bidding her to do it's will. No, Kagome had complete control over what she wanted and did not want to do, but the sword always carried the task out for her. Smiling slightly she remembered her first time picking up the sword.

_Timidly, only a few short minutes after dropping the sword like a hot potato, Kagome bent down and reached for the sword. Picking it up she decided that if it wanted to take over her body it would have done so already. Her friends looked on skeptically, urging her not to go near the evil thing._

_"See guys, it's perfectly harmless." She said and smiled, trying to convince them as well as herself. Kagome was glad the demons were far enough away that they couldn't feel or hear her heart going a billion beats a minute._

_"Kagome, I don't know if you should be carrying that thing. Remember what happened to Inuyasha?" Sango said warily, concerned for her friend._

_"Yeah, yeah! We all know what happened, no need to bring it up!" Inuyasha yelled down from his tree. Kagome scoffed out a laugh and rolled her eyes. 'That hanyou seriously needs to either lower down his pride or make himself more powerful. Because right now those two are in total imbalance.'_

_Sesshomaru remembered when himself and Inuyasha had clashes when he was being controlled by Soounga, even the hanyou was considerably powerful. If the sword were to take over Kagome, there was hardly any hope that the sword would ever give up control after tasting something so powerful. As long as the miko was to keep her powers balanced and in check, she should be fine and immune to the controling nature of his sire's sword. There were two main reasons why people could not take control over the sword. One, they did not posess the power that was needed to overwhelm Soounga into submission. Two, the weilders power was brash and uncontrolled; the powers were not under control and were highly imbalanced in their bodies. Needless to say, the second could hold the worst possible outcome. The person could have all the power in the world, but if they could not control it then they would completly demolish everything in their paths without a say in the matter._

_Suddenly all of the full demons, those being everyone except Inuyasha, Miroku, and Sango; passed out cold. With a loud thud they all hit the floor, Kagome nearly spearing herself. A golden aura, very much similar to the barrier that Soounga erected, enveloped the whole campsite. It was suffocating those who still witheld the need to lose conciousness. Next all of the demons, excluding Kagome, were enveloped in a bright silver light and when the light dissipated their bodies were nowhere to be seen. Soon enough the sickeningly powerful aura was pulled back and the concious beings regained their right state of mind and their ability to move._

Kagome however wasn't as lucky as to be fine as soon as the aura dissipated. She had been unconcious for another hour and then got unbelievingly sick thereafter. The next morning when she awoke she wanted to cry harder than she had ever felt the need to. If she would have there wasn't a doubt in anyone's mind that the river would have been flowing again.

"Hey Kagome, are we getting any closer?" Sango asked, wanting very much to be once again reunited with her fire cat Kirrara. Having her fingers entertwined with Miroku's was the only thing keeping her together. She wasn't much for public displays of affection, but at the moment she figured it was better than bawling her eyes out in public.

"Yeah, we're getting closer. I can nearly make out everyone's auras now. Even Shippo's, so that means we should be there soon enough." She said trying to comfort her friend. Now knowing that all of her friends were safe, Kagome's sadness and worry dissapeared. In it's place was once again, curiosity. She knew curiosity killed the cat, but technically she was a dog so she was good right? Either way, that saying was not going to have much of an effect on her, nothing could stop her from wondering. Why was she the only demon that wasn't kidnapped? Was someone trying to lure her in? Why did they only take demons and not her half demon or human friends? With all the questions bobbing through her head she didn't catch the remark made to her by Inuyasha. She looked up at him after hearing him yell about something or other.

"Wench, I asked if you felt that aura again!" Said the fuming half breed who was now walking in step with her, but far enough away that she couldn't take a swing at him if she wanted to. Tensions were still high between the two, despite the fact that he had submitted to her. Kagome still walked with a smug smile on her face because of that fact, he had been so cauky and yet she had still taken him down and made him submit no less! Finally realizing what he had said to her, she searched for the same aura that had taken away her friends. Soon enough, she pinpointed it. It was straight west, the same direction they had been going for nearly three days.

Why was it always west? What could be in the west...and then it hit her. She knew who it was! Without even answering Inuyasha's question she bolted off in the direction of the demon. Her companions taken aback by her actions, stood there in confusion for a second before they took off after her. After nearly twenty minutes it was quite clear that there was no point in even trying to catch up anymore, she was just too fast and was obviously unwilling to slow down. They watched nearly a mile back as she bounded over top of a large hill and jumped down without a second of hesitation. Not even Inuyasha could catch up to her, so he stopped and waited for his remaining group members to catch back up to him.

Meanwhile Kagome felt herself getting closer and closer to her now known destination by the second. Just a few short miles left and a couple hills to get over and she should be there. She mentally scolded herself for not figuring it out further. It was all so obvious to her now, whatever had snapped in her mind had brought all of the facts back into her mind and connected them. The aura that took her friends was the same as the one she had detected when she had last come back through the well. It was very powerful, and it resided in the west. Also since she had been back Soounga had reappeared once again.

"Shit!" She bit out as a tree branch scraped against her fine skin, causing a deep gash to appear. Thick, deep red blood oozed from the wound and onto her new kimono. To be honest, she was more angry that she had ruined her outfit than she was that she had hurt herself. Once she got where she was going she would have to find a seamstress that would be able to repair the kimono. Knowing herself, if she tried it on her own she would make it look worse than it already was. Her sewing skills could definatly use some improvement to say the least.

Honestly, she needed to stop the rambling that was going on in her head. Ever since she had become a demon, it was getting steadily worse. Oh well, no harm no foul she figured. Deciding that she needed to stop the bleeding Kagome slung the backback from over her shoulder, thankfull that in her desperation she had not left without it. Rummaging through it she realized that she hadn't brought her first aid kit along with her, while stuffing her bag she must have overlooked that particular item. Growling at her own stupidity she rummaged for something that could be used, looking faster as the blood flowed further and further down her arm.

Sighing she decided that it was no use just looking for things, she needed to dump the contents of her monster pack. Taking one last look through it she saw a few books, an extra pair of shoes, a bag of candy, some ramen, her MP3, and her cell phone? What it was doing in there she would never know, but she definatly knew she had no service! With a pained look she turned it upside down and shook it vigorously not being able to watch as all of the contents spewed out before her eyes. She had a stotic face on her look, because there sitting on top of everything she had was a worn out old shirt, perfect for making a bandgage out of. Rolling her eyes at her horrible luck she cut out a long strip of fabric. Then after rolling up her right sleeve she wrapped the still bleeding wound.

"Stupid tree...at least no demons got a wiff of my blood and attacked me." She said, oddly cheerful that at least that hadn't happened to her. Smiling she shoved the last of her junk in her bag and zipped it up. Just then she got up and knocked on the tree, deciding what she just said was very stupid.

"Speak of the devil." She turned around and round house kicked the boar demon that had rushed her. Apparently she was too late with her 'knock on wood'. The boar demon just shot her a glare with it's glowing eyes and took off in the direction she assumed it came from. Ugly beast it was, especially with it's dirty matted fur. Without much of a rush she strolled back to her backpack and was about to pick it up when about 10 of the nasty beasts rushed her yet again. They surrounded her on all sides, she was completely cornered. Although she knew that she could take them easily, she didn't really want to get all bloodied up. It wouldn't pose a very good first impression to the demon she assumed that she was going to meet.

Finally one very brave and brash boar charged at her blindly, nearly grazing her with it's long sharp tusks. Nimbly she hurtled over it's rather large body and perched herself on a low tree branch. It turned around and looked straight at her, it's eyes promising certain death if she so much as thought of coming down that tree. Kagome gave it a glare so strong that it would pass along to it's next generation. The boar however didn't avert it's eyes from the demoness in the tree, it stood strong unwilling to be intimidated.

"You stupid boars! Get the hell away from me and my bag, be on your way! Or so help me I'll slaughter each and every one of you!" She treatened and added a low growl into the mixture for good measure. They all shared some snorts and gargles which she interpeted as them laughing and mocking her. Eyes flashing as red as the blood on her arm she bared her fangs at them, shutting the ignorant monsters up for the moment. Deciding to use this moment to her advantage, she jumped down into the middle of them and grabbed Soounga from the ground. The boar demons finally noticed that she was upon them once again; enraged they all stormed her at once. Drawing her sword in front of her, she challenged any that dare cross her. Even with her threat they still insisted on coming at her.

"Now I know why they use the term 'boar-headed'." Kagome said and doubled over from laughing at her own joke. Luckily she did duck, because a boar went soaring over her head at that same moment. The remaining boars just looked at her like she was a complete idiot, they had understood her joke even though they were the stupidest of youkai. "Fine, don't take a joke!" She said and swung Soounga to behead one of them, it backed out of her way just in time and only managed to nick the very tip of one of it's tusks. They all fled from the enraged upper class youkai and fled towards the west 'Perfect, I can hunt them down and be on my way at the same time!'

Nearly an hour later there was still one boar high tailing it for the west. Half of it's pack had ditched within the first few minutes, and the rest had left within the last half hour. Now it was just this one, the one she had been so close to beheading. Either it was too stuborn to get out of her way, or it was too stupid. Surely it realized by now that she wasn't necessarily chasing it, but running toward her destination. They climbed up a steep hill and it nearly died of exhaustion. Before it could die of exhaustion Kagome speared it with her sword and took off past it, but the sight she saw when she reached the top of the hill took her breath away. There was the place she was looking for, the Western Palace, and it was absolutly gorgeous.

The palace in front of her wasn't like the usual palaces you would see back in this time period. It wasn't made of thing wood walls that were so prone to fire, and it wasn't a mere three stories high, it wasn't even of Japanese design. For that Kagome was certain of. No, this wasn't a palace. It was a full blown castle, complete with large stone walls. It had to be at least ten stories high and it was absolutly gigantic. She wiped her blade off in the green grass, trying to rid it of all the blood. Still wanting to make a good first impression she cleaned herself up a bit, well, as best that she could.

Striding proudly towards the castle proved much of a bore. Mainly because the castle seemed closer than it actually was, and also Kagome didn't really see patience as much of a virtue. So instead of making a grand ol' entrance like she had envisioned, she decided that she was going to run there just like she was running to the store or something along those lines. Ran she did and within twenty minutes she was standing at the fifteen foot high large wooden doors, waiting for something to happen. She had already knocked and yet not a soul had even answered.

After about two minutes she decided that nobody was going to open the door for her she tried yanking it open, and then kicking it open. When neither worked she started surveying the outside and saw that the eighth floor up had a window open. Though she was a demon, she knew that she couldn't jump that high. No matter how much she wished that she could. Finally after what seemed like forever, she put her plan into action. She jumped as high as she could and landed gracefully on a window pane, and tried opening the window to no avail. She could smell her friends now, and could feel the demon's pressence more than ever. They were close. She kept jumping higher and higher until there was only one more jump to go until she reached the open window.

As soon as Kagome jumped she knew she was not going to make it. She had not put enough power into it, her heart sank. Even if she was a demon, she could injure herself badly or even kill herself if she plummeted to the ground. She pushed all those thoughs out of her mind and focused on the task at hand. Fortunatly for her she had jumped high enough to grab onto the window pane, although her fingers only held on by a mere inch. Kagome dug her claws into the dark stained wood and managed to pull herself up a little bit. With one last burst of energy she propelled herself upwards and tucked into ninja roll and rolled onto the floor of the room then straightened out so she was standing to her full height.

Scanning the room she observed that it was a small room with two bunk beds and an average sized dresser pressed up against the walls. A flash of movement caugh her eye and she saw a scared looking demon inching towards the door. As soon as the male demon realized he had been found out he scrambled for the door, sure to set of the alarm to the whole castle. Before he could get there Kagome did a side kick that hit him in the side of the neck and he dropped like a sack of bricks. Kagome held her arms out and caught him before he hit the ground and layed him on one of the small beds. Even if he was going to rat her out, she did feel kind of bad that he got knocked out, just for doing his job. Reaching into her pocket she found a few small golden coins and placed them in his pocket. 'That should more than make up for it' she thought and slunk out the door into the large corridor.

The corridor wasn't very big, but it was dark which made it a little harder to get through. After she rounded one corner she was pleased with the large stained glass windows that let luminous colors to spill onto the dark tile floor. It also danced designs on the grey stone walls. Carefully she sniffed out her comrades, they appeared to be on the lower floor so she just followed the corridor until she could find some stairs, they had to be here somewhere. Finally she found a large stairwell, and when she looked down over the banister she found it led all the way down to a floor very far benether her. Kagome sighed, she really was not in the mood for descending on the stairs. Remembering her childhood obsession she seated herself on the marble banister and moved herself so that she was now sliding very fastly downward. The staircase was spiraling and she felt as if she was on a never ending waterslide. Soon enough she reached the bottom and flew off the banister a few feet, landing on her feet astonishingly. Running silent footed towards the room where she knew her friends were now, she slipped through the main foyer and down a torch lit hallway until she reached the wooden door that seperated her from her friends. She put her ear to the door and listened for anything. Kagome felt a presence behind her and turned around to face it, her hand covered her mouth as she gasped.

"And just how did you get here Kagome?"


	8. Hide and Seek

**Thanks SO SO much for the reviews u guys, i almost got 20! Most people wud probably be dissapointed, but i'm happy as hell! Now that I am prettymuch bedridden for a few days until i convince my mom to take me to the hospital, I'm going to try and put up a nice long chapter for you guys ^_^ the longest chapter i have EVER WRITTEN FOR ANYTHING, 7,000 words people! Loves you all *hugz and blows a kiss* keep up the reviews, for they are my life lol Also I don't own anything affiliated with Inuyasha, everything belongs to their respective owners. But I do own this story line, and my hillbilly =B So back off!! ^_^ lata playas!**

As soon as the initial shock wore off from being caught, Kagome tried not to laugh at herself. She had been startled by none other than the imp toad, Jaken. He stood there with the normal scowl on his face and one foot tapping impatiently.

"Impudent wench, how dare you sneak in to my Lord's palace?" He sqwaked with his bird like beak. Kagome forced herself not to roll her eyes at the little pest, but instead decided to humor him. Perhaps it would benifit her in some way.

"Oh master Jaken, what is my punishment for such a horrific crime?" She asked and bent down on one knee, bowing her head in mock shame. He seemed rather pleased with her response, well, if she was reading his little freakish face right. Soon enough though it turned into a malicious scowl and he hit her in her open shin with his staff of two heads. It took all of Kagome's will power not to strangle him after that little act.

"Come wench, and be ready to serve your punishment. For the hanous crime that you have committed, I think a few days or even possibly weeks in servitude should teach you the error of your ways." Preached the imp who was now walking at a rather fast pace for something so small. Kagome rubbed her abused shin a little before standing up and following him obediantly. As they were walking down a dark flight of stairs she pulled back her aura, disguising it so that it seemed as if she was just another lowly servent demon. Also she completely sealed off her miko aura, deciding it would only get her in trouble if people were to find out.

"You're going down to the lowest of the servent's quarters, here you should learn your lesson." Jaken said, his voice echoing off the stone walls. She merely nodded. This was the perfect opportunity for her. Soon enough they were on a floor with no windows to speak of, it looked more like a dungeon than a servent's quarters. It was dark and the floor seemed partially damp. She could see there were a multitude of bunkbeds spewn across the large space, but very few people in or around them. It was basically empty.

"Kimiko!" Jaken suddenly screeched and within seconds Kagome saw a young squirel demon scrambling to get to them. She tripped over thin air but rolled as gracefully as she could to the feet of them. Smiling in apolagetic way she stood up, not even bothering to dust herself off.

"Yes master Jaken?" Said her feeble little voice. Kagome looked upon her sorrowfully, she must feel horrible to have to live in this place. More than likely she was very restless and hyper, but there was no place to play around here.

"You will show around this wench, take her with you for all of your tasks." He said and with one more glare sent towards Kagome he began the ascent up the stairs. Kagome stuck out her tongue out at his back and made a mocking face. As soon as he was out of reach the demon beside her began to giggle.

"Hello, my name is Kimiko. Come on, we don't want to be late working." She said and draged Kagome deeper into the room, and by a rather jumbled looking bunkbed. "See, you can sleep on the bottom if you want, I usually like the top but you can have it if you want." Kimiko went on and began digging in a trunk set next to the bed and pulled out an outfit similar to her own, only bigger.

"My name is Kagome, and it's nice to meet you. You can have the top if you want it, I don't plan on being here too long." Kagome said and smiled. Kimiko snorted a laugh out and gave her the outfit.

"I doubt that, nobody gets moved up unless somebody gets moved down in an upper rank. That is very rare to happen, plus you would be last on the list for higher ranking because you're the latest to arrive. Sorry Kags. Now hurry and get dressed please, we're going to be cutting it close as it is." The young girl scolded, reminding her somewhat of Sango; especially when she called her Kags. Smiling and rolling her eyes Kagome got dressed quickly, trying not to get too embarassed. When she was finished she was in a pale blue dress that fit rather snug on her.

"Turn around and I'll help you finish okay?" Kimiko said and manually turner her so that Kagome's back was to her. She quickly tied a white sash around her middle, ending in a small bow on the small of her back. She then french braided her silver hair so that it went over her left shoulder. Lastly she handed her a small white cloth and tied it over her face so that it covered the top of her nose to down below her chin. Kagome was sure that she looked nothing like herself. She watched as Kimiko put the same cloth over her own face.

"Kimi, how come we have to wear these masks?" She asked, curious as to why such a thing was done.

"Oh, just in case we run into royalty. As the lowest servants, we wear these to signify our rank. It's just something that we do, it's not really a big deal." Kimiko said shrugging it off like it was nothing. Kagome thought it was quite strange, but who was she to judge?

"Thanks, now come on. Didn't you say we were going to be late?" She teased and Kimiko smiled, grabbing onto her hand once more. As they were running up the stairs, Kagome finally took into notice just how the girl looked. She was pretty young, and was probably almost as tall as Rin. Her hair was long and braided down her back, the color being a shiny auburn that shined vibrant red when the light from the occasional torch hit it. Her eyes were a turquoise blue color, contrasting nicely with her unusual hair.

"Where exactly are we going Kimiko?" Kagome inquired curiously, they were now on the main floor and had just passed the door that her friends were behind.

"Oh, we're going to the kitchens. The guests will soon be dining, it's nearly dinner time." She said with a smile. A few short seconds later they passed through a swinging door that revealed the largest kitchen that Kagome had ever seen in her entire life. There were multiple ovens pressed up against the wall and a massive amount of counter top space where other servants were putting the final touches on the dishes that were to be served to the royalty. Suddenly two plates were shoved into her hands rather grufly. Kagome looked up to find a pissy looking demoness looking straight at her.

"Don't just stand there like a bumbling fool, go take those to the royal family and their guests!" Hissed the demoness. "You lowely servants are so ignorant." She added smirking.

"At least I'm not some bitch who has to pick on those of lower rank just to make herself feel better!" Kagome retorted, intent on sticking up for herself and others of her 'rank'. The other demoness was then backed up by two others that looked somewhat similar to her, all with vibrant blue dressed adorned with a white lap apron on the front. They stalked closer to her and the original leader was nearly nose to nose with her. Kagome felt a tug on the bottom of her dress, which ended right above her knee. Looking down for a split second she realized it was only her little guide.

"Not now Kimiko, I'll take care of this." She patted her head after she heard the smallest of wimpers. The leader corked a smirk.

"It seems like the servent girl is also a whore, considering she already has a little brat." With that being said the others laughed. Kagome felt her anger grow, her aura flaring and trying to escape, but she refrained.

"She's not my daughter, she's a friend. Something you will never truly know, especially with how your face looks." Kagome said smirking. The girls looked a little confused, but not for long. Kagome pounced upon the woman and began beating her face, the other two trying to pull her off. That was a bad move as Kagome just got madder and dragged them down by their hair and knocked their heads together, effectively knocking the two out.

Once she landed a few more punches to the woman's face a few other servants who were watching pulled her off and Kagome smirked. If that didn't teach the disrespectful wench, she didn't know what would.

"Come on Kagome, let's just go serve the masters. I don't want you to get in any more trouble." Kimiko said with big pleading eyes. Kagome smiled down at her and grabbed the large plates of roasted meat, somehow balancing them on her arms. Soon she was falling in line with three other servants and Kimi, her being third in line. Knowing that she would be serving her friends she retracted most of her whole aura so it was nearly undetectable and hid her scent. She wasn't ready to be found out quite yet, she still had some exploring to do.

Too soon it seemed they were in front of the double wooden doors and they opened with a small creak of the hinges. Walking still in line she saw a large dining table set in the middle of a large marble room. On either side of the table were all of her friends talking amongst themselves merrily; Sesshomaru, Anna, Rachel, Kouga,Shippo, and little Rin were all sitting down. It even seemed that Inuyasha, Sango, and Miroku had made it too. She wondered for a quick moment how they got in since she couldn't.

_'Oh wait, Inuyasha probably banged on the door non stop and yelled for them to let him in. I swear, his voice could wake the dead.' _She mused to herself, smiling slightly behind her mask.

The first servant began to pour their drinks into the golden goblets set in front of each person. The next person set a plate of dinner rolls down and a large bowl full of something, she couldn't tell. She was next and like her predecesor she went in between Inuyasha and Shippo to set down the two plates, actually managing to do so gracefully. Her heart sped up a little as she did so, she was hoping that they woud not somehow recognize her. Thankfully her little encounter didn't show anything suspicious, that is until she pulled back her arms from the table and her right arm bumped into his left, causing him to spill his drink all over her.

"Watch yourself bitch, I don't want some nasty servant touching me. Now I'm thirsty, go get me something to drink." He said non chalantly, shooing her off with his hand. She forced herself to bow and then walk away, the whole front of her dress covered in red wine. Kimiko and the last servent were done serving the rest of the food and they all walked away obediantly. As soon as they had left Kagome growled lowly and ran off to the kitchen to get more wine. A knowing old servant working in the kitchen pointed her in the direction of the cellar door, knowing what she needed without even needing to hear it. It wasn't all too rare for a lower servant to get spilt on, and then forced to get more of what was spilt on them.

Kagome nodded a small thanks and rushed off towards the cellar. Soon enough she found two doors jutting out of the ceiling and pulled them up and then slipping down the stairs looking for the bottles of red wine. Soon enough she found a rather good bottle of deep red wine and pulled it out of the wooden case. Just as she was about to climb back up the steep stairs she saw the face of the demoness she had beaten up earlier.

"Have fun in the cellar you whore!" She seethed down and slammed the doors shut. Cursing under hear breath she tried to open the doors, only to find that they were locked and there was something blocking the doors from opening. Sighing she knew that she was trapped, and not just from the stupid door. It was either she break open the door, which she knew that she could easily, and get exposed for a powerful demon; or she could stay trapped down her. She settled on the latter.

"Well, might as well enjoy myself until I'm found. Somebody's bound to come looking eventually." She said and popped open the bottle of wine and took a short swig.

"Inuyasha, that was so rude! She's a person too you know!" Anna scolded after the servents had left. He gave her an incredulous look.

"You saw it, she bumped into me and spilt my drink! The least she can do is go get me some more!" Inuyasha retorted back.

"Perhaps you did go a little hard on her." Sesshomaru said taking a sip of his own wine. The only thing he recieved back was a glare.

"I wonder where Kagome is, I thought you guys said that she would get here before you?" Rachel said, somewhat worried about her newfound friend.

"We thought she was on her way here. Maybe she stopped somewhere on the way." Miroku replied after he swallowed a bite of his meal.

"Yeah, that or she got lost somewhere along the way." Shippo said innocently.

"Now that sounds more like Kagome." Sango said giggling. The group shared a small laugh at this and then continued eating their meals in a peaceful silence. It had been nearly ten minutes when Inuyasha spoke up once again.

"Where in the hell is that servant with my drink? It's been forever already!"

Kagome growled. It had been almost 15 minutes since she was locked in this damnable cellar. She decided she just couldn't take it anymore and stood up, replacing the bottle of wine in her hand with a torch that was suspended on the wall. She took one last look at the doors and then began walking farther down and down the cellar.

"Oooh, I wonder if this is a secret tunnel or something!" She said giddily, remembering one of the books she had read while still in high school. A sharp pain shot through her left leg and she lifted up her dress to inspect the wound. It seemed to be having a little trouble healing itself. She needed to get it cleaned off. She began running down the tunnel, searching for any ways out.

"You're fucking kidding...." She sighed out as she found that there was a dirt wall in front of her. There was absolutly no way out of this hole! Kagome let her anger and frustration get the best of her and she punched the stupid wall with all she had. She head a small crunch and looked down at her hand, noting there was something on it. Inspecting closer she noticed it had clothes on. Wait, clothes?

"Myoga, is that you?" Kagome asked in near disbelief. She peeled off the little thing and placed it in her palm.

"H-hello there Kagome." Said the little flea, opening his eyes. She smiled, glad that she hadn't killed him with her evil punch of doom.

"What are you doing here down in the cellar?" Kagome inquired, curiosity getting the best of her once again.

"Cellar? I finally made it to the cellar?! What great news!" He said sitting up and hopping onto her shoulder.

"Where did you come from in the first place then? There's no way in or out of here besides the doors, and they're blocked closed." She stated confuzed.

"Behind the dirt is a stairwell leading to the Master's study my dear. When did you arrive, and why are you alone?" He inquired, asking some questions of his own for once. She bit her bottom lip in thought, should she tell him what she was up to?

Sighing, she decided that what the hell? "I'm pretending to be a servent so that I can explore the castle by myself for a while. Don't tell anyone Myoga, or else all this work would have been in vain." She said pleading with him and giving him her best puppy dog eyes. He chuckled a little bit before answering to her plea.

"Of course I won't my dear, I'll even help you get out of here. That is, if you find me a little something to eat first." He said raising his eyebrows suggestively. Rolling her eyes she put her little finger up to him, but averting her eyes not wanting to see as he gorged himself on her blood. After a few short seconds she felt him stop.

"There, you happy now you little leech?" She asked and couldn't help but crack a smile at the now quarter sized flea.

"Very, thank you most gracious Kagome," he said and did a tiny bow, resulting in him losing balance and falling once again to her palm. "Now then, there is a door knob a mere few inches beneath the dirt. See your imprint? About three inches to the left." He finished and she followd his instructions carefully. Once she found the precise spot the marked it with an 'x' made by her claws.

"I guess all there is left to do is dig." She said and began scraping off the semi-wet earth with her fingers, mindful not to get too much under her claws. Finally after a few minutes of carefully digging she found a little bronze handle. "This is it I'm guessing?" A nod was her answer and she twisted the door handle and pushed it with all of her might. The dirt finaly crumbled uner the pressure and stood in a small pile by her feet. She stepped through the door and then shut it behind her. They began going up the narrow staircase.

"So now will people be able to see and use the secret door?"

"No, it's enchanted. I assure you, the dirt is now once more in place. Many things in this castle are enchanted, such as the waterfall." He said and she looked at him curiously like 'What waterfall?', but she soon found out. While talking to him her head was turned towards him and not in front of her and now they were standing under a lukewarm waterfall. She then recieved a look saying 'That waterfall'.

_'Might as well clean off while I'm here.' _She mused and washed off her hands and the wound on her leg, as well as the large wine stain going down her dress. As soon as she was pleased with herself she stepped up and out of the waterfall, completely dry.

"What the hell? Is that what the enchantment does?" _'Duh' **'Shut up! It's been a long day'**_. Great, now she's talking to herself. Awesome day, totally awesome.

"That would be it yes, not try to keep it down. This stair well is in the walls, so people outside can hear us. She nodded understanding and smiled, this was just too cool. The pair walked up the steep stairs for what seemed to be forever. Finally she saw a door ahead of her. Myoga noticed the same and tapped on her shoulder, and put a small finger to his mouth. Nodding once again in understanding she walked up the stone steps very quietly and hid her entire aura and smell, as did the small flea. She pressed her ear up to the door and heard voices on the other side.

_"Where is she? You were with her, weren't you?" _

_"Yes, but she was running too fast for any of us. She was on her way though, I'm sure of it. Are you sure you havn't sensed her at all?"_

_"No, I think I would have sensed her if she was in fact here."_

_"Maybe she's hiding her aura. She's learned how to do that too you know."_

"Perhaps. Now is not the time to worry too much on it, I'm sure she'll show up in good time. Come, I'll show you and the rest of your friends to your rooms."

And with that small conversation she heard and felt the two leave. Now was her chance, before one of them came back inside. With one last look at Myoga to make sure he was okay with it she stealthily opened the door and crept inside, making sure to not leave any marks that she was ever here.

"I'm afraid this is where I must leave you dear Kagome. I'll keep your secret." He said and winked at her. She smiled and let him hop off to where ever he was to next. Kagome saw him slip under the door and a sickening feeling came over her. She wasn't in the cellar anymore, but she was now basically trapped inside of a study that was sure to have another present inside soon. Quickly scanning for another way out she noticed that the window was open, if she was down low enough she could easily jump out. Walking over quickly she looked out and noticed that she was higher up than she was earlier.

Another thing was plauging her mind though, somebody was approaching. Fast. She looked for any other places she could escape to, but there were none. She turned back around so she could just go hide out in the staircase again, but the door was gone! Kagome paniced, she didn't know what to do. Well, may as well make herself seem like she knew what she was doing. She sat down in one of the chairs across from the desk and waited for the worst. But the worst never came, she felt the aura pass and go on farther down the hallway. Giving a sigh of relief she realized just how lucky she had been. The dude would have been majorly pissed off if he saw her here.

She stood up from the chair and put her ear once more to the door and heard nothing at all, and she didn't sense any auras especially close. Damn how she loved being a miko in addition to being a demon. Slowly and cautiously she opened the door and slipped out into the now candle lit hallways. Kagome had to admit, it looked a little creepy at night all by herself. Soon enough she found the gigantic staircase that lead down to the main floor, but she wasn't sure that she wanted to go quite yet. The whole reason she was being so secrative was to explore, so why was she wussing out now?

A pure look of determination on her face now, she set out to do some major exploring. In fact, she wanted to check out every floor before dawn. That gave her about eight hours to go through the whole castel, well the main attractions at least. Since she figured she was on the top floor she began snooping around, feeling for auras and whatnot. There wasn't a whole lot, it was mainly just a lot of hallways and an occasional closet. Being completely silent was never something Kagome was any good at, something that her very elderly first grade teacher always preached to her about. She was sure that Mrs. Hakinama would be very proud of her now. Nearly ready to give up on this floor being interesting at all she suddenly came upon a door, with a foggy mist creeping out underneath the door. Wait, foggy mist?! Without even thinking she opened the door and her jaw hit the floor. In front of her was the most beautiful hot spring ever. It had a nice clear pool with rocks lining the outside along with a bunch of tropical plants and flowers. There was a small waterfall running down into the pool, that must have been the running water she heard. There was a mist clinging low to the floor from the steam, making it all look so much prettier. The only light was from the moon which you could see perfectly from the bay window and from a few candles suspended on the walls.

"Well, since nobody's here..." Kagome trailed off and then quickly started to undress, taking that god awful mask off first. Not long after that she was in nothing but a white fluffy towel wrapped around her, soon letting that drop too as she stepped into the hot water. It soothed her aching muscles and also calmed her down enough to where she didn't even notice that she let her aura and scent slip out. She took her hair out of the loose braid and let it fan out around her, floating atop the water.

She dunked her head underneath and got all of herself wet, ready to use soap and then leave without anyone ever knowing she was there. She looked around the edge of the large pool and noticed the soap was on the other side. She wasn't quite tall enough to reach the bottom so she submurged in the water and swam there. Popping her head back up she poured a small amount of shampoo onto her hands and then proceeded to wash her hair. She then dunked her head again for a good fourty-five seconds in order to wash all of the soap out of her silver locks. She never even noticed as a door opened.

Once again she came to the surface, but not to see her safe haven of a hot spring, but to see her not so safe haven of a hot spring and a half dressed inu demon lord staring right at her with one elegant silver eyebrow up.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" Mrs. Hakinama would not have been too proud of that ear splitting scream. Quickly she covered herself up with her hands as best as she could.

Toga rubbed his temples. He had just shown his sons and all of their friends to their respective rooms and he was exhausted. Mainly because his youngest son was a complete dweeb. Now he had a pounding headache and all he wanted to do was take a hot bath and then go to bed where he might be able to find some peace and solitude. Scratch that last part, he didn't want solitude. He wanted the company of the woman that had been in his thoughts and dreams ever since he had been resurrected.

Kagome.

He wanted to know her, wanted to be with her. Always. She had enticed him without even knowing it, she was simply gorgeous demon or not. She was smart, whitty, funny, and just an overal amazing woman. Now that she had gone missing she was the only thing that was on his mind. He wished she was there with him right now, she could surely cure him of his headache and all of the stress he held.

Finally he had ascended the stairs to the next, the highest, floor. Soon enough he was at his bedroom door. Sighing he locked the door and flopped on his bed and shut his eyes, trying to relax some. He began undressing so that he was only in his hakamas, hanging his armor up and throwing his clothes into a basket to be washed later. He took his hair out of the high ponytail and walked towards the door that adjoined to his personal hotspring. It had been a while since the great Inu no taisho had been home, and he was loving his hot springs.

He opened the door and saw something that he never would have expected. In fact he would have sooner expected Sesshomaru to be in there doing his own laundry. No, before him was his litte inu miko Kagome. He watched her as she came back up from under the water and then heard her blood curdling scream that made him raise one of his brows. It was a good thing that his room and his own room were sound proof, or else the whole palace would be awake.

"Who have we here?" He asked and walked closer to the side of the pool. She in return backed up with some difficulty, seeing as she couldn't reach the bottom and she refused to expose herself.

"My name is Kagome, could you turn around so i can get a towel?" She asked blushing a brighter red than some of the flowers in the room.

"Very well." He said and turned around. As soon as she was sure he wasn't going to peek she skuttled out and wrapped herself in the towel she had earlier disgarded. Still, it wasn't enough to cover her as much as she would have liked.

_'So much for the perfect meeting. Then again, when is anything I do ever perfect?' Kagome asked herself._

"Are you decent?" The male inu asked and her a small 'yes'. He turned around and smiled at her, which in turn made her blush and shiver a little.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Kagome." He said and walked up to her.

"Please, the pleasure is all mine..." She responded and held out her hand to shake his.

"Please, call me Toga." He said with a smirk and took his hand, but places a kiss on it instead.

"Nice to meet you Toga." She said and smiled, maybe this meeting hadn't ruined everything after all. Although he did see her in the nude.

"Would you like me to leave so that you can get dressed?" He asked her, once again realizing that she was probably beyond embarassed.

"Yes, if you don't mind." She said and bent over to grab her dress and the obi sash. When she did that she unknowingly nearly showed him a nice view of her backside. Nearly, and yet it still took all of his self control not to jump her right then and there. Then he took notice of her clothes.

"Why do you have clothes of a servant?" He asked semi suspicious. Toga then thought of a few things that had happened at the palace today that were a little...unusual.

"Well, you see, uh-can we talk about this after we get dressed?" She said with a shy smile on her face. He smiled at her and nodded.

"Come with me." He said and walked back into the bedroom with Kagome in tow. He went into his large closet and pulled out a black shirt with a gold obi, then handed it to the girl.

"Here, wear this. It should fit like a small kimono, I don't have anything feminine to wear for you in here. And I doubt you want to go walking around the palace in a towel." Toga said smirking and she giggled a little, taking the clothing and walking back into the hot spring to change. He sat down on his bed, mind going a mile a minute. She was truly perfect in every sense of the word. Beautiful, modest, bubbly, smart, friendly, the list could go on forever. There was something about her that stirred his blood like none other had ever done. Knowing she would be coming back in quickly retrieved his clothing from the basket and put it back on, but decided against the armor.

Soon enough she was back, looking stunning in his own clothing. He mentally smirked, he would love to see her in his clothes more often.

"Come, let's go down to the kitchen. You must be hungry." He said and extended his arm toward her, wanting her touch more than anything. She smiled and took his arm and he escorted her out into the hallway.

"Yeah, thank you. I'm sorry I was in your hot spring, but I couldn't resist." She admitted as they walked.

"That's quite alright, feel free to use it when ever you please. Now, would you tell me why you were in servent clothing?" He said, curious to know. She laughed lightly and began telling him the whole story starting when she had arrived to the palace and nobody opened the door. Of course she left out the part where she had eavesdropped on him and Inuyasha.

He laughed at her tale, it was quite entertaining to say the least. It seems that it was not just a coincidence that things had been awry today in the palace.

"Wait, so you were the one who Inuyasha spilt his wine on?" He asked, suddenly connecting two and two.

"Yeah, that was me. Wait, were you there?" She asked, realizing something. He was the one at the head of the table, and she hadn't even realized!

"It seems that neither of us acknowledged the other then." Toga said and let out a deep chuckle, making Kagome's heart flutter.

_'Wait, why is my heart fluttering? Do I-do I like him? He is handsome, and kind, and caring, and funny, and-stop Kagome! This is Inuyasha and Sesshomaru's father! Plus he would never be interested in you, he could have any woman in the entire world. Get over your silly stupid crush.'_

"It would seem so." And then they were at the dreaded stairs. There were so many of them they made Kagome dizzy. Toga noticed the look on her face and smirked, picking her up bridal style all of a sudden. She squeeked out of suprise and put her arms around his neck so that she wouldn't fall.

"Do you trust me Kagome?" He asked looking her in the eyes.

"Y-yes." She said a little hesitant. Not that she didn't trust him, she was just nervous of what he was going to do. The next thing she knew they were flying towards the ground at an alarming rate. She nuzzled her head into his chest in fear, making him smile and his heart warm.

She barely even registered when they were on the ground, she was so scared. He had jumped over the banister! What was he crazy, suicidal?! Not to mention homicidal!

"Kagome, you can let go now." Said his deep voice and she peeked up to find that they truly were safely on the ground. She blushed and somewhat reluctantly released his neck as he placed her back on the black granite floor. They then silently continued on to the kitchen, which was suprisingly empty. When Kagome had last seen it, it was flowing with people.

"So, you knew who I was the whole time?" Touga then asked as he looked around the kitchen for something for her to eat.

"More or less, I figured it was you. That is when I put all the pieces of the puzzle togehter, which was only a few hours ago to be truthful." She said sitting down on a stool placed next to a counter top. Toga found some rice cakes and brought them over on a plate to her.

"I hope this is enough, but there really isn't much for snacks here. The cooks just make things fresh for meals." He said smiling apoligetically and standing next to her.

"Oh don't worry about it, these are fine. Thank you." Kagome said and hopped up so she was sitting on the countertop next to the stool. "You are the Lord, I insist that you sit." She said and smiled.

"Thank you, though it was unnecessary. You're very kind Kagome." He said and stared into her eyes. She smiled and blushed a pretty light pink at the intensity of his gaze. His eyes were so beautiful, they were much like Sesshomaru's and Inuyasha's, but there was something about them that differenciated him from them. Maybe she was crazy, but she could have sworn there was something different.

"Thank you for the meal, would you mind showing me my sleeping quarters?" She asked and hopped down from the counter. He stood up and interlocked his arm with hers, then walked out of the kitchen towards the foreboading stairs. Once again he swept her into his arms, and then he jumped up the stairs about a hundred steps at a time.

"Now that I think of it," he said as he landed on the floor beneath his "there are no more rooms on this floor. Your friends have all taken residency in them. And I would hate for you to be on a floor all by yourself." The gears in Toga's mind started turning and his face lit up brightly. Yes, this would be a very nice sleeping arrangement.

"There is one room upstairs that would be fitting for you." He said and jumped up to his floor, not having put her down when he landed last.

"It's okay, any room is fine with me. I was planning on staying in the servent's quarters at first you know." She said and giggled as he let her down once more.

"No, no only the best for a beauty such as yourself." He charmed and guided her all the way back to his room.

"But Toga, this is your room." She said blushing, did he want her to sleep in the same bed with her?

"Just come with me, you'll see youmatter.r room soon enough." He said with a smirk. They walked through his bedroom and went through a dark stained wooden door she hadn't seen before.

_'I swear, that smirking thing must be natural instinct to inu demons...and demonesses for that matter.'_

"Here, this is your room Kagome." He said and led her into a room that was equally beautiful to his own. It had bright blue walls and a bed to match. There were three large windows that showed all the beautiful night stars and now the moon was poking into her windows. A crescent moon no less.

"Thank you for the beautiful room, and everything that you've given to me." She said and looked up into his eyes. He smiled back and looked into her silverish blue eyes that enticed him so. Toga the cupped her cheek with one of hands and got closer and closer to his face.

_'Oh god, is he....is he actually going to k-kiss me?' _Thought the paralyzed Kagome.

Sure enough, he did envelope the stunned demoness in a sweet gentle kiss. Toga pulled back after only a few seconds at most, he didn't trust himself any longer. He would go her pace, he wouldn't screw this up.

"Goodnight Kagome." He whispered in her ear and then walked out of the room, closing the door silently behind him. Kagome didn't move an inch, she stood there starstruck. She heard him crawl into his own bed, even heard his breathing even out as he fell asleep. But she remained standing only until she was sure that he was not concious. Then she slunk into her own bed. She lay underneath the covers, swamped by pillows and sheets, but she was nowhere near sleep.

_'Did that really just happen? Did the great dog general, Inu no taisho, really just kiss me? Kagome? Or is this whole thing a dream? I hope it's not a dream, but this really is too good to be true.'_

Kagome imagined his face, the way he smiled and the sound of his laugh and his soft deep voice. Okay, maybe she wasn't so far away from sleep.


	9. Storming

**Hey guys, thanks for all the awesome reviews on the last chapter they made me super duper happy! Anyways, this will be the last chapter I'll upload until i get back from vacation next Saturday/Sunday and then I won't update until later in the week. I'll try and make this long, but i don't know how long it will be cuz i'm kind of rushing a little bit. Anywhosen, I love all of my readers so much *huggles all* Ur the best! BTW I do not own Inuyasha or anything affiliated with it, if I did I would own more than my hillbilly =B TEEHEE laters!**

Kagome groaned as she kicked the covers off of her, it was hotter than hell under them! When the heat still didn't subside she growled lowly and opened her eyes groggily. There across from here was a roaring fireplace. She glared at it icily, hoping that it would put itself out so she wouldn't have to get up. The fire just licked up higher, mocking her it seemed.

"Stupid fireplace, doesn't know anything about respect. I wonder who started the idiotic thing anyways, I didn't even notice the thing last night. Then again, I was pretty distracted..." Kagome mused, blushing a bit as she remembered the small kiss she had last night. No it wasn't her first, but it was the first one that had sprung this many triggers inside of her. Kagome dug herself out of the ocean of pillows and blankets, ending up falling over the end of the bed and hitting the floor with a thump.

"God, I'm going to be the death of myself one of these days." She said staring up at the ceiling, not trusting herself to get up quite yet. "Why are the beds in this place so damn tall in the first place?"

"Good question my dear." Said a deep voice from over and behind her. Kagome arched her back to see further behind her and saw a smirking Toga. He chuckled when he saw the stotic look on her face and offered her a hand. She took it gladly and pulled herself up. He noticed the blush staining her cheeks and raised an eyebrow, smirk still in place.

"It's r-really hot in here." Was her lame excuse as she avoided his eyes.

"Come, lets go downstairs. It's nearly time for the morning meal." He said chuckling and extended his arm like he did last night. She nodded and locked it with her own arm like she did last night. They walked down the multiple hallways for what seemed like forever. Kagome swore that the hallways just on this floor added up to more floor space than her whole house had back home. After an seemingly endless 10 minutes they arrived at the ever foreboding staircase. Toga made a reach to pull her into his arms but she side stepped him.

"You wish to walk down?" He asked her with confusion. He was even more confuzed when she shook her no. "Then how are we supposed to get down?"

"Just watch." She said smirking. With that being said she dashed over to the banister and sat herself on it, facing him, and let her hands loose. As soon as she did that the perfectly smooth and waxed wooden banister took her blasting down towards ground level. Touga was at first alarmed that she would try something like that, actually becoming afraid when he heard a small 'Eeep' escape her mouth. Then he figured out it was not from fright or dread, but from joy and exhiliration. He held a smirk of his own, but decided that he wouldn't play along with what she expected him to do.

Kagome flew off the end of the banister and prepared to land on the floor on her feet, like she had done the previous day. Instead she flew right into the awaiting arms of Toga. He smiled down at her, and that made her heart flutter. Just then she remembered the kiss they shared last night.

Apparently the dog general did too as he leaned down closer to her face, startling Kagome from her thoughts causing her to jump a little bit, which in turn startled Touga enough that he grip loosened on her and she fell to the floor.

"Oh, I'm sorry Kagome, I didn't mean to drop you!" Toga apologized frantically, hoping she wouldn't hold it against him. He wanted her and he didn't want something as small as this to break of any of his chances of that happening.

Kagome simply laughed and picked herself up. Of course she felt a tad bit embarassed, but it wasn't as if it was the first time she had fell today. Let alone see her.

"It's okay, it was my own fault anyways." She said and flashed him a smile. He let out a sigh in his mind, thankful that she was so forgiving. If he would have done that with either Sesshomaru's or Inuyasha's mothers, not to mention any other woman, they would have chewed him up and spit him back out.

He just smiled at her and took her hand in his, leading her the rest of the way to the main dining hall. Once they walked into the room all eyes were on them, studying the two of them. It was then that Kagome realized that everyone but her was fully dressed and put together, even Toga! Without even having to look at herself she knew that she was wearing a wrinkled haori that was clearly made for a male and her hair was messy and spewn everywhere.

_'But I'm not that interesting surely, what's so....OH NO! I must look like I just..Ahh!'_ Kagome thought to herself, and her face twisting in horror. Surely everyone in the room must think her a whore! Wait, maybe it was because she had finally shown up, and she was with the dog general. One look at everyone's faces again and she let out a sigh. Nope, they thought she was a hooker.

"Hello Kagome, it seems you've finally showed up." Said Sesshomaru with a hint of malice in his voice. Of course he would be angry, he thought she had slept with his father.

"Yes, nice to see you Kagome." Sango said and gave her a sly smile. Kagome just shot her a 'this is not the time for slyness' look and sat down at the end of the table, next to Rachel hopeing that she would be somewhat safe there. She tried not to follow Toga's form as he took his place at the head of the table, staring at her intently as he did so.

"Honestly Kagome," Kagome snapped her head to the side tracing the voice "You couldn't have cleaned up after doing the dirty?" Inuyasha said smirking, knowing that he would strike a nerve with that one. She cursed herself for teaching him that saying. His presumptions were right and Kagome's nose began to twitch in irritation.

"Yeah servant girl, that wasn't too bright of you. There are children here." Said the girl she had delivered to last night. Kagome hadn't noticed her there before, but there she was sitting on the side of Inuyasha. She could tell that Toga was about to intervene but she stood up abruptly before he could proceed.

"You all can think what you will, but you all should have relooked the facts before you go jumping to conclusions. Assumptions will be the death of you all." She spat and stormed out of the dining hall like a tornado. She was absolutly furious! Sure she did look a little messed up, but how could they think that she had really slept with Toga? They really thought she would go that low?! Some friends they all were. The humans she could understand somewhat, but the demons could have easily sensed it and smelled it for that matter! Quick so as not to be followed she hid her aura and scent completely and dissapeared down the stairs to where the lower servants were housed.

"Kagome! You're back! I was worried when you didn't come back down last night!" Kimiko cried out and engulfed her in a hug, that was cut short by Kagome.

"Come now Kimiko, we're leaving. Help me get into one of these dresses and we'll get out of here." Kagome said and ran over to a chest, pulling out a dress and slipping it on. She waited for Kimiko to tie her obi, but she never did. She looked back and saw that Kimiko was standing there looking at her incredulously.

"I'm sorry Kagome, but I cannot leave. I will be punished severely if I even talk of leaving the palace without authorization!" She said, not shivering at the thought of what would happen to her if she attempted to leave. Kagome tied her obi sloppily and picked the small demon up, nuzzling her.

"Don't worry Kimi, I won't let anything at all happen to you! Now come, you wouldn't want me out there all alone in the wilderness where all of the nasty demons could get to me would you?" She said with pleading eyes.

"I would never let anything happen to you Gome! Hurry before the lord catches us! Hurry!" Kimi said and pointed onward. Kagome rolled her eyes and giggled, she felt like she was a horse at the moment, but oh well. At least now she wouldn't be alone. Running as fast as her legs would carry her Kagome ran until she reached the main door and tried pushing it open, then she tried pulling it open. But neither worked, seeing as the damned door was still shut tightly.

"The door's enchanted Kaggy, its not going to open unless you know the spell. The windows open though!" She said and pointed a few feet away to a window that was casually open, letting in the brisk morning breeze.

"Good observation Kimi." She said quietly and bounded to the window, ready to jump through it. Just as she was about to jump through a flash was seen by the two girls and then in front of the window was the lord himself staring them down.

"Move Toga, I need to get out of this place for a while." She said, her patience thinning. He just looked at her, expression blank.

"Kagome, stay. You will not be bothered anymore, what happened this morning was completly uncalled for and I apologize." He said grabbing for her hands. She set Kimiko down.

"Cover your eyes Kimi, and don't you dare open them." Kagome said sternly and made sure she did so before she pulled Toga towards her, her hands around his neck. He looked at her with wide eyes and she kissed him passionately, but not allowing him to take dominance. As soon as she was sure that he was completly distracted by her she broke it off , grabbed Kimiko, and jumped out the window all in the matter of a few quick seconds. When her feet hit the ground she took of as fast as her legs would possibly carry her.

She quickly jumped over the fortress wall and dashed towards the direction she had come from yesterday, needing to get back to the forest. All of a sudden she felt Kimiko shift in her arms. Kagome looked down and noticed that the young squirel demon was having a hard time with all the wind rushing by. Kagome slowed down just as they were reaching the trees.

"You okay there Kimi?" She asked and skidded to a complete stop when she felt nobody was coming after them. Kimi rubbed her dry eyes and nodded.

"I'm fine, I've just never gone that fast before. There's not much room to run inside of the palace." She said and blinked a few times. Kagome nodded and held onto her hand, now walking.

"I understand and I'm sorry if that dried out your eyes. But as you could see we needed to get out of there really fast." she explained "Especially after what I did..." Kagome added at the end.

"What did you do?" Kimiko asked, easily catching the last sentence Kagome threw out there.

"Heh, I'll tell you when you're older." She replied rubbing the back of her neck. Kimi just smiled and kept walking the direction Kagome was going.

"Kaggy, where are we going exactly?" The young girl asked.

"Well I was thinking that I would grab my bag. I kind of forgot about it while fighting some nasty boar demons. So it should be somewhere around here." She said and began to sniff to try and pinpoint it. Kimi all of a sudden sniffed Kagome and then stuck her nose in the air and sniffed.

"I think it's a few miles from here that way." She said and pointed a little to her right. Kagome smiled and grabbed the young demonesse's hand and began to run at her companion's pace towards her forgotten bag.

Soon enough the two came upon the bag, well what was left of it. It was all tore into shreds and all of her things were broken and scattered. She felt her aura flare, oh she was furious! Some of her favorite things were in that bag!

"Kaggy, are you okay?" Kimi asked with a tad of worry in her voice, she didn't want to see her friend get mad. Just from what she felt when her aura flared out a big, Kagome would be highly destructive if she got too mad.

Kagome nodded, trying to calm herself down. She could always go home and get new stuff, she thought to herself. But she was still angry as hell at those stupid boar demons who did this, she could smell their nasty filth all over the remains.

"Well Kimi, what do you think? Want to go back?" Kagome asked, already knowing the answer. Kimiko nodded slowly and shyly, she wanted to go back to where she was comfortable, the palace. Yet she knew that Kagome wanted to stay here.

Nodding in slight defete Kagome picked up her MP3, the only thing that had made it. She knew the only reason she would be able to drag herself back to that horrible place was if Kimiko told her she wanted to go back. Sure, she hadn't said anything but she had nodded a yes, and that had counted as the same thing.

"Come on then, let's walk back since you don't like me to run fast." She said and smiled, the most time she spent out here the less time she was going to have to face back in the palace.

'_I may be young, but I'm not dumb Kaggy. I know you don't want to go back to the castle, but I like you. So I'll play along.'_ Kimiko thought to herself as she looked up her new friend that she was already so close to. And so the two made their way back to the palace that one saw as home and the other saw as a frickin' prison.

Toga sighed as he sat down behind the large dark desk in his study. He brought his hands to his face and wiped the invisible grime covering it. So many things were racing through his mind it was beginning to give him a migrane. The list could go on and on, but there were a few major issure circulating through his brain.

1) He had found Soounga between a crease in the wall near the staircase that went down to the lower servant's domain. It was supposed to be in Kagome's possesion to help keep her safe.

2) Kagome had kissed him passionately. He didn't know wheather or not she was doing it because she used it as a ploy to escape, or if she had actual feelings for him and was kissing him goodbye.

3) Kagome was gone and he had no idea where she was. He couldn't sense her aura or smell her, and he didn't recognize the small demon she was with so he couldn't track down that one either.

No matter what he was thinking about, it always seemed to follow a certain pattern. Everything had concerned a certain miko inu demoness. He would admit, he was falling for her very fast and extremely hard. Just knowing that she could possibly be in danger made his stomach churn and his migrane worsen considerably. Toga knew that she could very well defend herself. From what he had heard, she had very efficiently taken down his youngest, and his pup was no weakling.

Being honest with himself, he had probably brought this upon himself. He'd let her walk downstairs and let everyone see her the way she was this morning. They had immediatly jumped to conclusions and began ridiculing her. None of them had even bothered to ask her about it, not to mention smell her or feel her aura. If he had mated or even rutted with her she would have smelled like him and his aura would have been mixed with his own a tad bit. When she had stormed out on him and the rest of the royal entorouge he had taken it upon himself to lecture them all good and straight. He had reminded them that it was particulary stupid to assume things by how they appear, as that is how people usually got themselved into trouble. Let's just say that by the time he was done chewing them up and spitting them out at his feet, they all felt as though they had dug themselves into their own holes. Now it was up to Kagome to decide if she was going to pull them back out or bury them alive.

He knew, because of her nature, that she would forgive each and every one of them; some would take longer than others however. Especially his youngest pup. Already he was not in her good graces, and now it seemed as if he might never be able to swindle his way into her forgiving him.

She was rather pissed when she had left, and that let him track her at least to the servant's staircase before she hid her aura and scent and lost her. So he had waited in the shadows, knowing that she would be back up soon and he would be ready for her when she did reemerge. When she had come up with the girl squirel demon he had been curious, but he still watched her, intent on seeing what she was up to before he made his move. Then he heard the suggestion the small demon had made and ran as fast as he could go to the window, barely beating her there. The next thing he knew he was being kissed with more passion than he had ever experienced in his entire life. He let her have her way, he couldn't resist her. She'd remained dominant through the whole entirety of the kiss, elicting such a great pleasure throughout his whole being. But after such a short time it seemed, she had pushed him aside and made her escape. Toga was so stunned that he hadn't even realize she was gone at first, and by the time he was ready to follow her she was already gone, completly untraceable.

He felt himself grow tired of brooding and stood up, his chair smashing back into the wall from the abruptness. At the moment Toga wanted nothing more than to rip up everything in Japan to search for his future mate, Kagome. However he kept his anger down, deciding that if it was still present by morning than he would spar somebody worth his time. Sighing for the umpteenth time that day he walked out of the study and made his way down the hallways towards his bedroom. It was still quite early in the night so he decided a bath was in order. He slipped into his quarters and then began to completely undress, then wrapped a towel around himself. A few strides more and he was soaking in his personal hot spring, mind once again wandering towards the woman for him.

"Kagome, why do you affect me so?" He asked himself aloud. Suddenly he felt an overwhelming yet welcoming aura wash over him and he scrambled out of the spring and wrapped the towel around himself, running to his room. Once there he put on his sleeping attire and rushed down the hallway, nearly colliding with the person there. Luckily she took wide corners or she would be pressed up against the wall right now, not that he would mind that position much. That's right, in front of Toga was his lovely Kagome. And her small friend he added as a side note.

He enveloped her into a tight and loving embrace and kissed the top of her head, and chuckled inwardly when he felt her latch onto him also. They stayed that way until they heard a small giggling to the side, then the female of the pair blushed. Children absolutly did not need to be exposed to that kind of thing!

"Um Toga, can Kimiko stay with me tonight." She said with pleading eyes and picked up the girl, making the younger one copy her actions. Between the two females he felt himself crumble and cave in. He nodded and heard the two cheer for each other and they began to take off towards their room. But before Kagome could escape he held onto her arm and whispered in her ear.

"Kagome, once the child is asleep I want you to come say goodnight to me, is that acceptable?" He said huskily into her ear, making her shiver for some unknown reason. She nodded, gulping a bit before he released her and let her catch up to the young one who was nearly to the sleeping chamber's door. He smirked as they walked in, he could effect her just as much as she could affect him it seemed. Toga was definately going to use this knowledge to his advantage.

When Kagome entered her room she shut the door behind her and leaned her back against it, thoughts running rampid through her fuddled mind. She noticed that Kimiko was opening another door that revealed an array of different kinds of clothing.

_'That dog! He let me go downstairs in his clothes when there were perfectly good clothes to use in here all along?!'_ Kagome thought somewhat bitter, but the bitterness faded when she remembered the way that he had embraced her when she had arrived back at the palace. It warmed her heart and soothed her like nothing ever could have. Not even her music she thought as she placed her MP3 on her nightstand, before walking over to the closet noticing that Kimiko had already changed into a sleeping kimono.

"I see you're making yourself comfortable." She said and laughed a little. "I can see that you're tired, you go to bed and I'll be back soon okay?" She said. When the girl nodded Kagome patted her softly on the head, sending her over to the bed they would now share.

Once she had put on a light sleeping yakuta she braided her long silver hair over her left shoulder and then softly padded her way over to the door that adjoined her room with Toga's. After earning a brisk 'Come in' when she knocked she slowly opened the door and looked around for him. Soon enough she found him sitting up in bed, reading a scroll. He smiled up at her and beconned for her to come over. Kagome obeyed quickly and walked over to the side of the bed he was on.

Toga reached out for her hands and she didn't object when he held him, he could even swear that he felt her squeeze his own a little bit. She looked into his eyes and honey gold and blue steele met. For a few moments they just stood there looking at the other, admiring.

"I was worried about you when you ran off Kagome." Toga exclaimed, turning things more serious. Kagome refused to look down, though she felt the urge to. She had a reason to leave, and damnit she would not be ashamed about it! But he was worried about her, and that softened her heart. She smiled weakly at him.

"I needed to get out, but I'm back now. And I promise I won't leave again. Unless I get agrivated or offended and I need to leave, then I most definately will get out of here in a heartbeat." She said, rambling on a litte. Toga merely chuckled and pulled her into his arms.

At first he felt that she was tense, but then she loosened up and placed her hands on his chest, feeling it rumble as he growled lowly from content. She smiled and nuzzled his neck instinctively, earning herself a tight sqeeze. Kagome looked up and saw that Toga's eyes were closed and she smiled, giggling a little at how happy he looked. At that sound he snapped his eyes open, smirking a little. He pulled her closer and kissed her, passionate but soft. It didn't last long, but it was definately special. She then untangled herself from him, earning something close to a husky whimper from him. She smiled apoligetically.

"I'd better get back to Kimiko. Goodnight Toga." Kagome said and dismissed herself after he bid her a good night, dragging herself lazily to bed. Toga slipped down into his bed and chuckled to himself.

_'Kagome, I don't know what you're doing to me, but I most definately like it.'_


	10. Early Riser

**Okay, I know that there isn't much to this chapter...but the next one is going to be super special, and I just wanted all the specialness to be in that chapter, so this one had to stop there. Sorry, but I'll get the next one up soon! Also, thank you to ALL of my readers, even to the ones who don't favorite, subscribe, or review. I still think you all are awesome, just for checking it out ^_^ I was also pleased to see that alot of the people who read this story are from many different countries! Not only from my native U.S.A, but from all over the world in the Phillipeans, the Carribean, many countries in Europe, including Finland(which happens to be one of my favorite places in the world, I want to go there so bad)! So I just wanted to use this beginning note as a giant thank you :] Yet this doesn't even touch the surface of how much I appreciate you all, much love to everyone! Also, I don't own Inuyasha or anything affiliated; the only things I own are this plot and story line, my original characters, and my hillbilly =B later players!**

If there was a law that said you couldn't get up before the sun rises, then today Kagome would have been charged severely. It was probably close to four in the morning, but she was completly rested and ready to go for the morning. In fact, she needed to burn off some of her extra energy she had. Crawling out of bed she searched through her desk and found a quill, ink, and some paper. Quickly as she could she scrawled out a little note to Kimiko for when she woke up.

Leaving the note on the small table next to the side of the bed Kagome tip-toed to her closet and put on a clean fighting outfit. It was similar to the demon slayer's fighting outfit, but instead of having pink trim it had light blue and a silver moon on the back. She didn't know if she should be wearing something with the house crest on it, but decided that her hair would be covering it anyways.

She snuck out the door and made her way past Touga's door as quietly as she could before sprinting down towards the stairs. When she got there she hung onto the banister and swung herself onto the next floor down. She then sniffed her way to where she knew Inuyasha's room was. It wasn't hard to find, as it was already drenched with his scent. While walking down the hallway she had noticed that each of her friend's had their own room to theirselves.

Deciding that she needed to stay focused she tried to open the hanyou's door, but it was locked. Extending her claws she poked her index finger into the lock hole she turned and twisted it until she heard a small click. Kagome opened the door and slid over to the hanyou's bed. He looked so calm and peaceful when he was asleep, not pretending, but actually dead asleep.

"Inuyasha." She whispered into his ear and then covered his mouth with her left hand as his eyes shot open. If she hadn't surely he would have yelled and woken the whole palace up. She then saw him calm down slightly and she put a finger to her lips to signal him to be quiet.

"What the hell do you want? It's the middle of the fucking night!" He said in a harsh whisper. She just rolled her eyes and took a hold of his sheet and pulled it out from under him, dropping him to the floor in an instant.

"We're sparring, come on." She noticed he had a look on his face that said 'Yeah right, I'm staying right here. Leave me alone, wench.' Bad move. "You lazy pile of shit! You owe me this! You've treated me so bad in the past few days that I get mad even thinking about it! So I suggest you just shut that damn hole in your mouth and follow me, if you know what's good for you." She whispered through clenched teeth.

He rolled his eyes at her and attempted to pull himself up. Too late. Kagome grabbed him up by the collar of his haori and pulled him to his feet and motioned him to follow her. Deciding that if he didn't he would be in deeper trouble than he already was, he followed her being completely silent. The duo made it to the staircase and she threw him over her shoulder and then made a small rectangular barrier under her feet and jumped off the side of the railing. She could practically see Inuyasha's face, and she wished that she had, it would be priceless.

Just as she was about to his the ground the barrier prevented her from doing so. She stepped off of it and it dissapeared into thin air and she dropped Inuyasha to the floor on his butt. She heard him growl a little bit and thwapped him on the head. After that he shut up and began trailing her to the dojo that was located outside the palace.

"Why are we sparring anyways? It's not even dawn yet!" Inuyasha complained as he wiped the sleep from his eyes.

"Because I'm wide awake and I need to get rid of some of this damn energy."

"Well why didn't you get someone else to do it with you? Someone awake?"

"You're the only one that I know I can beat on without getting myself killed or having to submit." Kagome answered and heard him give a low growl. She led him to the main door and stepped aside so that he could open it. He begrudgingly opened the door and let her slip outside before he followed her and shut the gigantic door behind him as quietly as he could manage. They walked behind the huge fortress and found a large dojo behind it.

"Come on, I'm ready to play Yasha!" She said and grabbed his hand before rushing inside. He just shook his hand from her and grabbed a wooden sword.

"Then let's play. I'll teach you how to defend yourself with a sword, it's not like I have anything better to do." Inuyasha muttered the ending and tossed her a matching sword, which she caught with ease.

He began showing her the basics at first, about the proper stance and a few techniques. She was actually impressed, he knew more about swordsmanship than he let on. After at least a half an hour they began to do some sparring, nothing too serious, just practicing. But eventually things started becoming more and more intense.

"At least I know I'm still better than you at something." Inuyasha told her with a smirk as he blocked a shot to his left arm.

"Not for long!" She told him and they began going at demonic speed. If they didn't have increased sences, they wouldn't even be able to tell where the other one was. This went on until the sun started to rise and the dojo was being lit by the sun and not the torches that lined the walls.

"Stupid human turned demon!"

"Stupid half breed!"

The two said one right after the other and then they swung their wooden swords at the other and locked them right in between the sparrers. It was a battle of wills, whoever dropped their sword first had a lesser will. It also meant that they had less endurance and strength, something neither wanted to admit.

With a loud crack both of their swords snapped in half where they met. The two fell into each other with Kagome landing on top of Inuyasha when they fell onto the ground. She opened her eyes with a groan and looked down into the eyes of the hanyou below her.

"I'm sorry Kagome, for everything..." He told her and averted his eyes from her intense gaze. Despite what he told others as well as himself, he was ashamed of his behavior. She rolled off of him and sat up.

"I'm sorry too. You made some mistakes and I took all of my anger and frustration out on you. It wasn't right of me, and I'm going to make it up, I swear!" She said as her eyes began to tear up.

Inuyasha just sat up, propping himself up with his shaking arms, and looked at her like she was insane. He had abandoned her, humiliated her, and even tried to kill her. And _she _was apologizing?

"You don't need to make anything up to me Kagome. You're my best friend. It was wrong of me to do everything that I did. Can you forgive me?" He asked her and brought her into his arms. Kagome hugged him tightly and cried silently into his shirt.

"Of corse I forgive you, I missed you so much Inuyasha! I don't ever want to get into a fight again!" She said as she let him go and wiped off all of her tears. He just smiled at her and agreed before he got up and helped her to her feet.

"Go inside and get cleaned up, then maybe you'll join me in my room for breakfast?" He asked her, trying to make things right between them. She smiled and nodded.

"I'd like that." She said and walked out of the dojo, still sniffling.

D*I*F*F*E*R*E*N*T

Kagome stripped out of her dirty clothes and slowly entered the warm water of the hot springs. She knew there was a possibility that Touga might walk in on her again, but this time she was prepared. Her soap, towel, and clothes were all within arms reach. Nevertheless, she tried to wash all the grime off of her quickly. She dunked her head in the warm water to drench her locks, then came back up to caress them with soft smelling soaps.

"If only ever day could be as perfect as these past few days have been." She thought to herself. Okay, so maybe there had been a few difficulties and challenges, but it wasn't anything she couldn't handle. She massaged herself with the sweet liquid until it bubbled up and then submerged herself, getting rid of the suds. She emerged from the water and dried off with her towel and put on a bright blue mini kimono on and ran her fingers through her hair, attempting to untangle it some before she got back to her room. Kagome grabbed her dirty clothes and her wet towel and left the hot springs room and made her way back to her bedroom.

Upon arriving back she noticed that Kimiko was no longer there, she must have gone down to eat breakfast with everybody else. She went through her hair with a brush after putting the clothing and towel in a basket. It was long and very shiny, and actually dried out quickly.

"I swear, there is no downside to being a demon." She mused and giggled to herself as she walked by the door that connected to Touga's room, and she heard something from inside. Was that, snoring?

"I can't believe that he's still asleep!" She said, astounded. "Well, if he's still asleep when I get back from breakfast, I'll attempt to wake him up. Since I'm now officialy making myself the sleeping police."

So she left her room and walked to the staircase in peaceful silence. When she got to the staircase she decided it would be good for her to walk, so she did. In fact, she walked all the way down those steps to the floor below her own, and then made her way to what she remembered as Inuyasha's room. When she got to the wooden door she knocked.

"Come in." Was the muffled response she got, the doors kept sound from going in or out very well it seemed. Kagome turned the knob and pushed the door in, walking into the room she had neglected to take a look at earlier this morning. It was gorgeous to say the least, not to mention gigantic. It was nearly the size of her own bedroom and almost the same style, only his was clad in black and red.

"Nice digs." She said and sat down on a black cushion across from her friend. In between them was a tea tray filled with morning foods and drinks.

"Kagome, your face!" Inuyasha said and pointed at it. Kagome became worried, what was wrong with her face?

"What? Give me a mirror!" She said and touched her face to make sure that it was mangled in some way. She didn't feel anything different.

Inuyasha scrambled to a desk and swung open a droor. He began stiffling through it, eventually pulling out a small mirror. He ran back and gave it to her, but by this time she was really freaked out. What if something horrible had happened to it?! But wouldn't she have noticed? It was all so confusing, did she really want to know?

Kagome lifted the mirror up to her face and gasped at what she saw. She had markings! Actual demonic markings! And they were the coolest things ever, as her hippie aunt would say, 'they were the cat's meow!' There was a light blue stripe across each of her cheeks, and they were gorgeous.

"When the heck did you get those?" Inuyasha asked taking the mirror back to keep her from gawking at herself. Kagome just shrugged.

"I don't have a clue, they must have just shown up since you didn't see them earlier." She said and felt them, they were so soft, almost like silk. The two stripes were also ice cold, but only to the touch. Her face didn't feel cold in the least.

"That's kinda weird, but they're cool. Can I feel them?" He asked and leaned over to touch them before she could even reply. Some things would never change. "Wow, I always wondered what markings would feel like."

"So have I, they're rad though." She said and then shoved a bite of rice into her mouth. Inuyasha followed her lead and began to eat, talking could be done later. Right now they were both starving from their early morning work out. When they had both eaten to their heart's content, leaving the tray completely empty, they stood up.

"Thanks for breakfast, I have to go to my room for a little bit. Want to do something later this afternoon?" Kagome asked him.

"Sure, I still need to talk to you about some things. Later Kags." He said as she waved and walked out of his room, shutting the door behind her. Kagome walked down the hallway, up the stairs and then down the hallway again before she came to Touga's door. She put her ear to the door but still heard nothing. She walked into her room and then listened again to their connecting doors. Once again there was the snoring.

Kagome knocked on the door and waited for a response. When she didn't get one, she tried again. Still nothing. So she opened the door up. The only thing she saw that proved that Touga was in fact in the room was the silver hair she saw that was heavily contrasting with the black sheets of the bed. Kagome walked over to the side of the bed where he was and kneeled down in front of it. She began moving strands of hair back and soon revealed his sleeping face. He looked so peaceful she almost didn't want to wake him up, almost.

"Touga, wake up." She said softly into his ear, but only received snoring as an answer. She giggled at that and then shook him softly to try and rouse him from sleep. Still nothing.

"Touga! Come on, wake up sleepy!" She said loudly and shook him harder; nothing still! This man was so difficult! She pushed him, with much difficulty, so that he was dead center on the bed and then crawled up next to him. "Touga!" She said as loud as she dared, trying not to let everyone in the castle hear her. Kagome heard him groan, almost inaudibly, and that sparked her to try even harder. She stood up and started jumping on the bed, seeing if such sudden movement would help. It didn't, and it appeared the groan didn't signal he was close to waking up, it must have just been from his dreams.

She sat on his chest and then tweaked his ear a bit, annoyed that she couldn't wake the demon up to save her life. As she was about to start pounding on his chest to wake him up, he rolled onto his side, causing her to fall next to him on the bed. Touga then wrapped his arms around her and pulled her as close to him as was possible. She squeeked in suprise and was about to scold him when she noticed that he was still in a dead sleep. Kagome let out an exasperated sigh and then put her hands on his chest and tried to push herself away.

That seemed to do the trick and his eyes snapped open. Touga saw the girl in his arms and looked at her somewhat confused as to how she got there.

"Um Touga? Could you let me go?" Kagome asked with a red blush tinting her face. He raised and eyebrow and flashed her a smirk, leaning in to her ear.

"And why would I want to do that?" He whispered to her; he could basically feel the heat radiating off of her cheeks. "How did you get in my arms in the first place?"

"I was trying to wake you up, and then you arms took me captive. So this was prettymuch against my will, so it's only fair that you let me go. Besides, you should be getting up too, it's already really late this morning." Kagome said, trying to get him to release her. It was quite the uncomfortable situation for her.

Touga sighed and released her from his grip, and watched amused as she scrambled off the bed. He then got up and began taking off his night clothes. Kagome's face burnt up even more, if that was even possible.

"I-I'm going to go back to my room now," She said and walked briskly backwards towards her door, tripping only once or twice before the frazzled girl made it back into her room. "Come get me when you're done, I was wondering if we could take a walk after breakfast?" She ended and shut the door tightly.

Touga merely chuckled and proceeded to get dressed for the day in his regular lordly attire. He would also have to discuss things with his eldest son; was he accepting of him taking over as lord? As he was contemplating he tied his obi and stuck his sword in it's scabbard placed on his left hip. Touga then walked over and knocked on his future mate's room door, corking a smile as he heard her run towards the door to open it. It seemed that he wasn't the only one who wanted to see their significant other.

"Are you ready for that walk now Kagome?" He asked and extended his arm out to her, which she took enthusiastically.

"Of course, but don't you want to eat first?" She asked him, a little concerned. Demon lord or not, you still needed to eat. He began leading her out of his room and into the massive hallway before he responded.

"I do not wish to eat right now, I'm not all that hungry. Besides, if it really is as late as you say it is, if I ate now then I wouldn't be hungry for the midday meal." Touga told her. She nodded in response and the rest of the walk to the staircase was left in a comfortable silence. When they reached the formidable stairs, Kagome began to walk down them, much to the older Inu's suprise. If he had it his way, then she would be in his arms as they were falling down to the floor. Not only was it much faster, but he got to be even closer to her. But if she wanted to walk down the stairs, who was he to tell her no?


	11. By The Koi Pond

**Hey guys!! Sorry it's been so long since I last updated, but things have been so mega hectic....and also my apologies for this short and suckish chapter, i'm horrible at fluff....So yeah, I'll try and update as soon as I get the chance okay? Much love to everyone, laters! Also I don't own Inuyasha or anything affiliated, the brilliant Rumiko Takahashi does. The only thing I own is my hillbilly =B lolz**

By the time that Touga and Kagome had made it outside they were both somewhat tired. Neither were used to going down those stairs, and it took alot out of them, even if they were demons. Kagome knew that if she was a human she'd be passed out on the ground panting for breath by now.

"Where are we going my dear?" Touga asked curiously.

"I havn't really got to seen the outside grounds much, so I just thought we'd go check it out a bit." Kagome said, blushing a bit at being called 'dear'. He nodded and held onto her hand, letting somebody lead him for once. It had been a while since he had been back at his home, and honestly he didn't remember it much. When he had came back, things were quite different. Then again, it was Sesshomaru and now himself who ruled the western lands now, so it was to be expected that things had changed over time.

"Touga?" He heard and looked back over to Kagome.

"What?"

"I asked if you liked this spot." She said and he took a look around. It was a small secluded part of the gardens apparently, seeing as they were surrounded by various plants. They were standing in front of a small white stone bench and in front of that there was a small koi pond.

"Yes, this is fine." He said and sat down, pulling her with him. He made sure that they were still holding hands, Touga wanted to be touching her in some way at all times. It was the nature of an inu to be very affectionate with a mate or an intended mate. That and he was just especially grabby.

"I have a few questions Touga, and I hope you don't mind me asking." Kagome said, not wanting to go on before getting his approval. He nodded, signaling for her to continue. "Well, I think that all of us have been curious to know; just how are you alive again?"

"Well Kagome, even I am not quite sure of that myself. Once I came back to the world of the living, it was like I lost all memories of the explanation to why I was back. What I do know is that right before I came back I was put in front of a priestess. The basics of the conversation was to help weaken Naraku before your pack got to him, and to make sure that the jewel not be wished upon." He said, trying to explain to her in the simplest way possible. Touga wasn't real fond of long explanations.

"So you were given your life once more so that you could help destroy Naraku and make sure that the jewel wasn't wished upon. Interesting..." She mused while stareing into the pond, watching as the fish swam so gracefully in the water. "Wait, so it **was **you that threw Soounga, shattering the jewel!" Kagome said, having a sudden epiphany. Touga looked at her cautiously, not wanting to upset her.

"Yes, that was indeed me. At the moment I didn't have a clear head yet and knew of no other way that the jewel wasn't to be wished upon." He answered her.

Kagome merely nodded. "You know that we have to collect all of the shards right? We can't just let rouge demons run wild with them, that'd cause unimaginable damage." She stated.

"Yes, I'm aware that the situation with the jewel needs to be handled."

"Okay, one question down, two to go. Next one: Are you now the Lord of the West, or does that title still belong to Sesshomaru?" Kagome asked, this was definately a big issue. If the issue was not addressed soon, there was sure to be some kind of argument between the father and son. That's not something that anyone wanted.

"I plan on confronting Sesshomaru soon on that issue. Rest assured, we will figure something out that will suit the needs of both of us." He told her, giving a quick reassuring squeeze to her hand. She smiled at him. This was so much easier than she thought it was going to be, but then the nervousness started to get to her.

"This next question is a bit more personal than the last two..." She began, watching for any signs that she should just shut her mouth. She saw none. "Excuse me if I offend you in some way or upset you, I just have to know. Why are you getting involved with me? The only thing that I can think of at the moment is because of the power that I possess..." Kagome trailed off, self confidence at an all time low.

Touga looked at her completely appaled. How could she ever think that? Did she really think him so shallow that he would only try to get with her for more power? His inner beast started to become enraged at the idea. But quickly he pushed his beast down, scolding it for being so idiotic. The woman was probably just scarred that she would be hurt and wanted reassurance. Yes, that sounded alot better. He gingerly put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him, smiling to himself as she leaned her head on his shoulder. Before he answered her, he wanted to make sure that she was completly calmed down and relaxed. After about ten minutes of just sitting in each other's company, Kagome lifted her head up and looked up at him.

"So I'm guessing that you don't just want me for my power? But for my smexy body as well?" She said smirking and then began to giggle at his confusion of her reference to 'smexy'.

"Kagome, I want you because you are the most pleasantly unique woman that I have ever encountered. You're beautiful and yes you are very powerful indeed. That's what initially lured me to you, was just the physical attributes. So once I was risen once more, I began secretly trailing you and your friends, mainly because of my curiosity. Then I came to realize that in addition to being extremely attractive and powerful, you were also intelligent and benevolent. I had to come back to the castle for some of the issues that had arisen, but I made sure that when I was not busy that I find some way to get you, my sons, and your friends to come to the palace; simply because I could not come to you all."

"So you were the one that transported all of us that were demonic. Except me of course." She inquired, fairly certain that her assumption was correct. A blush was firmly placed on her face from when he had started complimenting her.

"Yes, that was my doing. I enveloped the auras that I knew, they had to be demonic because of the spell, and then transported them to me. At that time I was not yet aware that you were a demon yet. I just assumed that you and your human friends would come for the demons." He explained to her, becoming amused as her curiosity kicked in. Touga could practically see the wheels in her mind turning.

"Why didn't you transport Inuyasha as well? He is part demon, so the spell should have worked on him too." She wondered aloud.

"That's true, it could have worked, if I had wanted it to. I decided to keep him with you for extra protection for you and the humans." He then chuckled at the remembrance of the little spat they had. "Then again, I didn't know that you had gotten in a disagreement with him." He smirked at her small blush.

"Yes, well we worked things out early this morning. When **somebody **was still soundly asleep." Kagome retorted and giggled. "Thank you Touga, it's nice to know that you like me for who I am."

"My dear, I'm sure this was going to come up at some point. As you are aware, I've had two previous mates." He began, and she nodded in understanding. "The first was Sesshomaru's mother, and that mating was simply to produce an heir to the throne. As soon as Sesshomaru was born, we quickly seperated and over the course of a few hundred years the bond diminished and we were both free to do as we pleased. What most people don't know is that myself and Akemi are still friends. She contacted me as soon as she heard that I was back from the dead. You will have to meet her, for she is coming to the palace in a few weeks."

"I'm going to have to meet her?" Kagome asked with worry in her voice. God, how could she even begin to compare to Sesshomaru's mother?! If she looked even remotely like Sesshomaru, then she was bound to be gorgeous. Her name itself meant beauty!

"Yes, don't worry too much on it Kagome. I'm sure that the two of you will become fast friends. Contrary to what most people think, Akemi is very friendly and accepting." He told her and gave her a quick peck on the lips.

"Alright. And what of your second mate? I think Inuyasha told me that her name was Izayoi?" Kagome inquired, honestly his second mate was the one she was curious of.

"Yes, Izayoi...I find it hard to talk about, even now. You see, when I first met her it was at a meeting between myself and her father, who was a king of a small human village. He decided to bring his daughter along. She was stunning and seemed to be intellectual and kind. I asked her to stay at the palace and her father and herself willingly agreed. Within months we were mated and she was pregnant with our first born. When the news reached her father, he took Izayoi from me. We agreed that once the child was born that they would both return with me." He let out a deep sigh, preparing himself to say the next words.

"When she was nearly ready to give birth, I was searching for the dragon Ryukotsei who was terrorizing the western lands. I recived a letter from her, that basically stated that she couldn't and wouldn't be with me any longer and that as soon as our son was born that she would kill it if I did not come for it. At first I couldn't believe that my mate would do something like that to me, but then I went in a bliding rage. I found Ryukotsei and fought him as hard as I could, but I simply didn't have the drive so when things began to look bad for me I used the remains of my power and sealed him; then went to go to Izayoi.

"I was extremely injured and weak when I got there, and the palace in which she lived was set ablaze. I went in anyways and found that she and our newborn were dead, but I revived them with Tenseiga. Once she was alive again, she pretended to be joyful and warned me of her husband who had caused this massacre. It was then that the coward showed his face, and we fought until a burning beam crashed down onto my back. Her vile husband then slit my throat and left me there under the beam to die. When he was fairly certain that I was dead, which I wasn't, he went over to Izayoi and they kissed tenderly and told each other that they loved the other...I was crushed and I belive that was the final blow that killed me. With the very last bits of my power I sent an energy blast out and killed her husband. I don't remember much after that, only that once I was dead that Izayoi was not there with me as she should have been, if we were true soul mates." He said and looked down, his long silver bangs covering his eyes.

Kagome by this time had tears streaming down her face, and her heart was aching tremendously for him. It must have been hell to know that the one you loved was not faithful and didn't love you back. She wrapped her arms around him and nuzzled into his neck, attempting to comfort and calm him. She felt as he embraced her and began nuzzling back.

"Please, don't shed any more tears for me...that was a long time ago." He told her softly, but she just shook her head.

"No Touga, I know that it hurt you deeply; it kills me inside to know that you are so pained. Is there anything I can do for you?" She asked looking him in the face, tears still gleaming in her silver blue eyes.

"I'm fine Kagome. It's hard to have gone through what I did, but you give me newfound hope. I can feel a connection with you that I've never experienced with any other, you are my soul mate Kagome." He told her, and she could hear his heart pounding in his chest. She smiled and hugged him tightly, never wanting to let go.

"Touga, I feel it too. You're the first man that has even made me feel the way that I do, and I never want to try and look for another. We've only been together for a few days, and yet I feel as if I've known you my whole life." She looked up at him and then stood. He followed her and stood up, and their lips locked in a passionate kiss in front of the koi pond. That's how they were found.

"Ewww! Kagome-chan that's disgusting!" They heard from Kimiko and broke apart, a smirk on one of their faces and a deep red blush on the other.

D*I*F*E*R*E*N*T

"Sesshomaru, will you join me in my study?" Touga asked as he passed his oldest son in the hallway. Sesshomaru nodded and then proceeded to follow his father up to his personal study. Touga gestured towards the chair adjacent from his own and Sesshomaru sat down in it, taking a glass of sake that a servant had set by him.

"What's this about father?" He asked and took a small sip of the aged rice wine. Touga took his own glass and swirled the clear liquid around before speaking.

"The title of Lord of the West." He said bluntly, knowing that his son didn't like to beat around the bush.

"I see. What do you propose on the matter?" He asked, taking another sip of sake.

"I'd like to hear how you wish the problem to be addressed. I don't have a preference." Touga said, and he honestly didn't. Either way he was going to have to stay at the palace, so it really wasn't that big of a deal to him. But he knew that it honestly mattered to Sesshomaru.

"Well father, you have returned now and should be Lord of the West. I don't particularly want the job, and the title doesn't belong to me. It's all yours until the time when you decide is right for me to take my place as lord." Sesshomaru said, he honestly didn't want to be lord anymore. He had much more important things to do, like spend time with Anna.

"As you wish son. I'll send out a notice to the other lords of your resignation." He said and stood up, finishing off his sake in one gulp. Sesshomaru stood and gave a small bow to his father.

"By the way, good to have you back father." He said and made his way towards the exit.

"Good to be back son." Touga said as his son departed, off to seek his onna probably. Touga sat down at his desk and looked through all the scrolls that needed immediate attention to. He let out a dejected sigh, there were the downsides to being a lord. As he was looking through the scrolls he saw a large stack of mating proposals. It seems that most everyone knew that he was back already, and were quick to jump on the idea of it. He smirked and took all of the mating proposals there and set them in a seperate stack on the edge of his desk. Oh yes, he would have alot of fun replying that he already had an intended mate. He could already imagine their shocked faces and desperate objections already.


	12. Mating Proposals?

**Yush! this was such a fast update, no?? Hehe high fives for me! Anyways, I'm so much happier with this chapter than the last one(which sucked some major balls). I really hope u guys like it :D I'm not all that greath with gushy mushy stuff I think, I'd much rather be putting some action and drama in ;] which is why there is some, fight scenes are awesome to write! Please review cuz i luversh 2 read what u guys think ^_^ BTW I don't own Inuyasha or anything affiliated with it, Rumiko Takahashi does. The only things I own are my wooden dinosaur and my hillbilly =B teehee, much luv 2 u all, laters!**

"What the hell do you mean by that?!" Kagome screamed at the general who was looking equally upset.

"That a woman is too weak to be fighting and needs to go back into their homes and go be good little house wives!" He yelled, showing his fangs to her. By that time she was already snarling.

"I bet I could kick your ass without any weapons or my miko powers! And you know what I think? That men just need to shut their mouths because what they say is usually incredibly stupid!"

"Like I would ever fight a weak demon such as yourself. Now get out of my sight before you make yourself look like more of a fool than you already have." He said condesendingly and turned around to talk to some of his soldiers.

"Well if you're too scared to fight me, then fine. I wonder how those in the palace will react to knowing that their general doesn't have the balls to fight a 'week demon' such as myself." Kagome said with a smirk on her lips and a mischevious gleam in her eyes. The general stiffened before turning around and glaring daggers at the woman before him.

"Fine, but know that this battle will last until submission, and just because you are a woman I won't go easy on you. Prepare to hurt worse than you ever have in your life." He said extending his claws and his face darkened.

"I wouldn't expect nor want you to go easy on me, and I think you're in store for a rude awakening." Kagome said smiling, this was going to be fun. The two were outside in a fighting ring, with all of the soldiers the general were previously speaking to were off to the side, watching. They were all ready to step in if he started hurting the lady too much, they knew how vicious their general could be at times.

The two inside the ring were now circling each other, waiting for the correct time to attack the other. Finally after a few agonizing minutes the general made a leap for Kagome, trying to catch her off guard. It didn't work and she side stepped him, but barely. Unfortunately she over corrected herself and lost her balance for a split second, making her vulnerable. The general took the chance and jumped on top of her, pinning her down onto the ground.

"Submit to me." He growled. She just smirked up at him. While he was being perplexed as to why she was smirking, she took her chance and used all the force she had to bring her knees up to her chest and then push him off of her enough so that she could roll to the side. She looked up at the gawking soldiers and smiled. Maybe they would think differently about women now.

The general was dumbfounded, how did a woman manage to get out of his hold? She was supposed to submit! That angered his inner beast and just drove him more to get her to submit to him. So when she was looking at his soldiers he stalked behind her and made a grab at her, but she ducked down just in time. He basically hugged himself and she stood up, turned around and pinned him to the ground with his right hand on his left side and vise versa.

"Submit to me, general." She said with a superior tone. He growled at her and pushed her off, making her skid to a stop a few yards away. By now his beast was completely enraged, how dare she?! He leaped towards her, but she ran at him. Not knowing what to do and not being able to stop, he just kept going towards the woman. She ran right into him with her shoulder now blocking her. His chest hit her shoulder, hard. But the intertia she held overpowered his and he laid sprawled out on the ground, trying to catch his breath. Faster than lightening she had his arms pinned with one hand above his head, and her other hand at his throat, her claws glowing green with poison.

"Submit now!" Her inner self snarled out, and it settled down once his head moved up and to the side. She let him go roughly and then stood up. "Let that be a lesson to everyone here that not all women are obedient house wives." Kagome said as her final words and then proceeded to walk back to the palace. As soon as she was about a hundred yards out she could hear the talking of all the people that witnessed what just happened. It brought a smile to her face.

"Already beating the snot out of my men I see?" Said a farmiliar voice and Kagome looked over to her right. There propped up against a tree was the Lord of the West, Sesshomaru. Well, she thought he was the lord still.

"All I wanted to do was watch their training, he brought this fight about." She said innocently and strolled closer to Sesshomaru. He just chuckled and raised and eyebrow.

"I saw the whole thing Miko, no need to try and make General Moi completely to blame. You're a fairly experienced instigator from what I can tell." He told her with a smirk as he stood up and began walking towards the palace. She followed close behind him, she would have walked next to him, but they were at his home and she was going to treat him with the upmost respect. Well, as much respect as she could muster.

"So why were you watching this 'weak demon' anyways?" She asked, deciding that it wouldn't do any harm to walk prettymuch besdie him.

"I stumbled across the scene just as it was starting and I stayed because if anything happened to either of you I'd be put in a bad position." He told her plain and simple.

"How so?" She asked curiously.

"If General Moi was injured then I would have to find myself a new military leader, and if you were hurt Father would more than likely go on a rampage." Sesshomaru said shivering. He could remember a few times when his father had gone completely bizerk, and there really wasn't a need for a repeat.

"Then it's a good thing that you were there, in case things started to get out of control. Who knows what have happened if I transformed into my beast, it would be my first time after all. Just from the primal instincts I've been feeling, things wouldn't go very well once my beast was in control." Kagome said, a tinge of anxiety creeping into her mind. Next time something arose that brought out her temper she would just leave it alone and walk away.

"Indeed. What were you doing out here anyways?"

"Just walking around the grounds, making sure that nothing is amiss."

"I've noticed that you've been out and about a lot more this week than usual, why is that, if I may ask?" She questioned him curiously. There was a suspicion, but nothing to actualy confirm her beliefs.

"Technically, I'm not supposed to tell anyone about this. But since you were part of the help in this, I should let you know that about a week ago Father and I came to an agreement to the lordship. He will be once more reclaiming his title and I will regain it once he decides to pass it on to me. It is to remain a secret until a formal letter is forged and let know to all the major lords and then announced to the inhabitents of the western lands. That is probably the reason why you have seen more of me and less of him this past week." Sesshomaru said and opened a small door leading into something that could be somewhat compared to a greenhouse, which was conjoined to the palace.

The greenhouse was absolutely stunning and took away Kagome's breath every time she saw it. The walls, ceiling, and even the floor were made of glass that seemed to have white swirls going through it and occasionally the colored speckle. Inside there were numerous plant types, including some tropical that could only be from a rainforest somewhere. Up above you could see the moon and the sun perfectly and the light they gave off were the only things giving the place any sunlight at all. Surely it was to keep the plants alive, and it just made everything more special. Underneath the thick glass floor was a pond where black koi fish were swimming underneath, and in the center of the room there was a fountain that opened up the pond. The flowers were always in bloom and the fruit was always plentiful and ready to eat. So she did.

"So, how is this announcement going to be made? Will there be scrolls sent out to the minor lords who pass on the news?" Kagome asked curiously and took a bite out of an pear she had just picked form a medium sized tree near the fountain.

"No, that would be far too difficult and wouldn't ensure that the news got out properly. There will be a formal gathering here at the palace to inform everyone of the news." Sesshomaru said and sat down on a glass bench.

"Still seems like alot of trouble just to announce the new lord, but then again I don't know much about these things." She said, a little blown over that there would be a big formal party basically, just for the intorduction of a new lord, who had actually been lord before.

"There is also the fact that the Prince of the West now has a mate to be.." He was stating but was cut off as Kagome elicted a happy squeal.

"Oh my gosh, congratulations! I can't believe you and Anna are going to be mates! I wonder why she didn't tell me, a bunch of us girls have been hanging out alot since we got here." Kagome contemplated.

"Thank you, and you probably didn't hear because we just decided on it last night. Plus you wouldn't have found out anything this morning because you were too busy terrorizing the staff." He said with a stiff look that still made Kagome avert her eyes from him.

"Sorry about that. So I guess this party is going to be about more than just one thing." Kagome said and took another bite, nearly finishing off the piece of fruit.

"Three things actually, there will aslo be the announcement that the Lord of the West has found his intended." After those last words were said they were greeted with wide eyes and a chokeing demoness. Sesshomaru was shocked for a few seconds before he leaped into action, pounding on her back trying to dislodge the hainous fruit. Soon enough the fruit flew, right into the fountain where a large black koi came up and swallowed it in one gulp.

"Intended?!" She asked incredulously after she got her wits about her.

"Yes, you are his intended in case you didn't know..." Sesshomaru told her slowly.

"Well no shit, I know that. But we never really discussed the friggen matter and I sure as hell didn't agree to it!" Kagome spat out, obviously pissed off that she had not been included in the discussion, especially since it involved her.

"It's not as if things are set in stone Kagome, this merely means that Father wants to take you as a mate sometime in the future. This, I'm sure, he has made perfectly clear. Also, it's nothing you have to agree to because it isn't neccessary. You aren't being forced to mate with him, this is only stating that he wishes to have you as a mate. Do you understand now?" Sesshomaru tried to explain cautiously. Obviously this wasn't something the couple had discussed and now he found himself in a delicate situation that could very well turn into hell for him, if he said the wrong thing.

After taking all of that into consideration, Kagome calmed down. She was sure that Touga would have told her in a less brash way about things, but he would have told her. But they hadn't really seen much of each other recently so it was probably difficult for him to do so. Also it comforted her knowing that she wasn't being forced into anything.

"Yes, I understand now. Do you know where Touga is now, I'd like to speak with him about things." Kagome asked, but already having a suspicioun to where he was.

"More than likely in his study." Sesshomaru said and stood up with her.

"Alright, well I'm going to go talk with him. It was....interesting talking with you." Kagome said and laughed a little bit and even a smile crossed his face.

"Quite. Would you like me to escort you there?"

"No, I know my way around here quite well. I do have a question though, do you know where Kimiko went? I havn't seen her since breakfast."

"I do believe that she is with Rin and Shippo playing somewhere, the three have become quick friends." Sesshomaru explained.

"Duh, why didn't I think of that?" She asked herself and then noticed the look on his face. "Don't answer that. Talk to you later Sesshomaru, bye." She said and walked through the door that led to the palace.

Soon enough she was to the stairs, which she quickly bounced up. Once she was on the very top floor she began mazing her way through the corridors until she came to a large, dark stained wooden door. She knocked on it a few times but recieved no answers. Kagome put her ear to the door, but then she realized that everything is this palace was sound proof.

"Why is everything always so difficult around here?" She mumbled to herself and then slowly opened the door, being careful just in case somebody was inside. She let out a sigh, Touga was inside the door and hadn't even noticed her yet.

"Touga?" She asked quietly, half hiding behind the door. His head snapped up and his eyes caught hers, but then a wide smile spread across his face.

"Ah Kagome, I'm so happy to see you." He said and got up from his chair, then walked over and pulled her into a gentle hug. "It seems like forever since we got to spend time together."

"Yeah, it has been a long time." She said and put her head on his shoulder while she kicked the door closed.

They stayed like that for a while, just letting the other calm down and relax. The two really had missed the other, they hadn't got to spend nearly the time together that they wanted. Really, the only time they got to see each other during the day was at the morning meal and when Kagome went to tell him goodnight. And most of the time he wasn't even in his bedroom, so they went without then also.

"I missed you so much Touga." She admitted and ran her fingers down his back, making him growl lowly and pull her closer to him.

"I missed you also Kagome." He said and reluctantly released her. She smiled and moved to take a seat on the other side of his desk, but was grabbed around her waist before she could make it there.

"What?" She asked and looked back at him.

"Sit with me." He told her and led her over to his large armchair. He sat down and then pulled her down onto his lap, then he smiled down at her again and pressed his forehead to hers.

Kagome smiled and closed her eyes, loving the feeling, especially when his arms were around her. It made her feel warm, special, and loved. She moved her head away from him and smiled when she saw him look dissapointed. Then she moved in and captured his lips in a kiss. That made him feel so much better, seeing as he was really getting into it and pulling her even closer to him. After a few minutes the two finally seperated to get some much needed air.

"I'm sorry that I can't spend more time with you Kagome, but it seems once I'm done with all of the work here all I want to do is sleep and relax." Touga told her, regret heavy in his voice.

"Well, maybe I could help you with your work and then we could do some stuff together, even if it is only relaxing. I miss our time together." Kagome said and nuzzled his neck.

"Alright, that sounds like a reasonable solution to things. It isn't unusual for a lord to have someone help him with such business. I assure that you are literate and know most of the major lords?" He asked her.

"Of course, over the years I've been here there has been lots of time to learn about most all of the lords." She told him, quite proud of herself. Amazingly she had gotten through school with fairly decent grades, during which time she was trying to memorize all of the lords of Japan.

"Excellent. Well, feel free to start tackling anything. If I does need my immediate attention, then just hand it over to me. If it is something that you can handle, then go ahead and take care of it." He told her, glad that someone was actually helping him get things done for once. Now not only could he be with her more, he would also have more time to spend with her outside of the study.

D*I*F*F*E*R*E*N*T

Kagome was begining to feel a bit weary, she had been working her butt off for the past four hours. The two had skipped lunch in favor of working, just so they could get things done earlier. A servant had brought them up a tray of snacks, which were quickly devoured by the two. Kagome had no idea how tireing it was to handle all of this stuff.

"Well, considering what all is left, we should only be here for another fifteen to thirty minutes." Touga announced happily, little did Kagome know that not only had they gotten todays work done, but they also finished up the backed up paper work that he had been avoiding like a disease.

"How much more to you have left to do Kagome?" He asked her while he was reading over the last long and important document there was.

"Just this stack right here, they shouldn't be too much work." She said and picked up the stack that was on the edge of his desk and put them in front of her seat, which was now conveniantly right next to Touga's. Kagome picked up the first document and started reading it over. It was enough to make her eyebrows furrow together. She read another and another, and the more she read the worse she felt. The stack consisted of mating proposals...Now Kagome couldn't help it, she felt somewhat betrayed and used at the moment, why did he have all of these in a seperate stack? All she wanted to do at the moment was throw the stack in her fireplace and watch them burn to ash. But she wouldn't, and besides, she really should give Touga the benefit of the doubt. Still, it was a little hard not to be brash about things.

"Touga, what do you want me to do with these mating proposals?" Kagome asked, darkness creeping into her voice despite her wishing it not to. Touga stopped writing mid-sentence and looked up at her like a child who was in trouble. Her eyes were cast downward and he could feel the anger and sense of betrayal in her aura; not good.

"I'm sorry that you found those, really you were never supposed to find out." He told her calmly.

_"Yeah, so that when you got a mate you could just kick me to the curb you jackass?!" _She wanted to scream at him, and her beast was willing her to, but she kept her mouth shut.

"If you want the truth, I had wanted to reply to those myself. You see, I've been getting these stupid proposals left and right. The same before I died, and it was always a favorite past time of mine to crush their petty hopes of becoming Lady of the West. I'm sorry if you got the wrong impression." He told her and held her free hand, and he could tell she was becoming less angry by the second. Good, a jealous Inu female was never a good thing.

"And I'm sorry I got upset over it. But, do you mind if I reply to these letters myself?" She asked him, mischeif in her eyes and in her corky smile.

"Go ahead, just make sure I authentisize them when you're finished." He told her chuckling softly. Kagome smiled even wider and read the first one again, oh yes this was going to be fun.

_Dear Natsumi of Nasaki,_

_I regret to inform both you and your family of this bad news. You will not be taking Lord Inunotaisho as a mate. He has already chosen his intended, his intended being me. I do hope that you and your family will attend the formal gathering presenting him once again as Lord of the Western lands, and presenting myself as his intended mate. The time and date for this event are enclosed. Have a wonderful day._

_Kagome of Edo_

She handed over her first letter to Touga and watched him as he read it, soon enough a smile came to his face and by the end he was laughing. He quickly signed the bottom of the page and handed back to her.

"Very well written, I'm sure you're going to cause mass devistation to the women of Japan with these letters." He said with a smile still on his face.

"Oh, I very well intend to do so." She replied and then got back to the proposals. Within half an hour the two had both completed their work.

"What would you like to do now, Touga? Since you have no more work to be done." Kagome asked as he looked over at him. He was leaning back in his chair, eyes closed, and rubbing his temples.

"Honestly, I think I'm ready for a nap. All this paperwork has given me quite the headache." He told her and then sat back up, sure enough his eyes looked very tired.

"Well you go up to your room okay? I'll see you soon, I have a couple things to attend to." Kagome said and gave him a quick kiss to his temple before walking out of his study and down the hall. After a few minutes Touga got up and then walked back to his room where he rid himself of his shoes and then got under the top layer of his covers and tried to get some sleep, but he was just too sore from leaning over his desk and his head was still pounding. It seems that sleep for him would not be coming around for a while.

Meanwhile Kagome was already down the stairs and on the way to the kitchen. Nearly half way there, she spotted Rachel Anna and Sango roaming the halls.

"Hey guys!" She called out and they all looked over before smiling and walking over to her.

"Hello Kagome, long time no see!" Rachel said beaming. She looked absolutly wonderful, still bright and cheery as always. Probably because of a certain wolf demon.

"Yeah, where have you been?" Sango asked, looping arms with her as they all began walking towards the kitchen.

"Well, I have just been wandering the castle when I'm not with you guys. Got in a fight with the general this morning, whose ass I whipped." She said with a smirk. The three of them began to laugh.

"Finally somebody kicked him off his high horse, he told me yesterday that I was too weak to even fight his lowest ranking men!" Anna growled out, but then began laughing at the image of the stupid General laying helpless on the ground.

"Glad I havn't met him yet, he sounds like a total idiot. But that doesn't explain where you've been after that." Sango said with a raised eyebrow. Kagome blushed and avoided their intense gazes.

"I spent it with Touga, helping him with paperwork and stuff in his study. Is that so wrong?" Kagome asked just as they were going into the kitchen where workers were busy going around already preparing for the evening meal.

"Oooh, soon enough the two of you will be mated! You're already spending alot of time with each other." Anna said with a knowing smile and a little enthused giggle.

"It's only a matter of time, and not that much time from what I can tell! What are we doing in the kitchens anyways?" Rachel asked looking around. Kagome was already at an open stove getting some water ready to boil.

"Making some tea for myself and Touga, we didn't eat lunch so I thought we'd have some tea and maybe a little bit of wine before dinner. You have no idea how hard it is doing paperwork!" Kagome explained, exasperated as she got out some tea leafs and some mint and a couple other herbs. Sango had volunteered and went to go get some dark wine from the cellar.

"You're already acting like his mate, caring for him and helping him. Not to mention all that time together." Anna said smiling and opening up the top of the pot to allow Kagome to put the ingredients in.

"Well I'm not the only one, the two of you should be mated in no time from what I hear." Kagome said. She looked up and noticed that the two girls had blushes on their faces and wide eyes. Just then Sango arrived back from the cellar with a wine bottle in her arms. "Not to mention Sango is no doubt going to be married to Miroku, eventually." She added on, nearly making the girl drop the bottle. That made her laugh.

"At least we don't deny it." Rachel said as she put a silver tray down with two tea cups and two wine glasses.

"You don't confirm it either." Kagome retaliated and smiled, putting the now ready tea and the wine on the tray and then began walking out. All three girls followed her.

"We all have somebody in our lives, let's just be thankful for that." Anna said, to which they all agreed. It took hardly any time to get to the staircase, time flies when you're talking girl stuff, and they all split up. Kagome said goodbye and gracefully jumped up the stairs, intent on getting the tea to Touga before it cooled off. When she knocked on his bedroom door she heard an annoyed 'Enter'. She opened the door and walked in with the tray, shutting the door behind her.

"I brought you something for your headache." She said smiling gently and set the tray down on his bedside table. He opened his eyes and looked at her, sitting up a bit.

"Thank you, but it's not neccesary." He said groggily.

"But I wanted to, besides it should help you relax enough to be able to sleep. Especially for what I plan afterwards." She said teasingly. Kagome sat on the edge of the bed and gave him a cup of tea before getting some for herself. Touga took a cautious sip and it nearly automatically made his headache receed. They drank their tea in silence until they were done and then Kagome took his cup and set it down next to hers.

"Lay on top of the covers on your stomach please." She asked him and he complied, but not without raising and eyebrow and giving her a suspicious look. "Don't worry, just relax and enjoy."

Once he was down she then crawled over to him and began slowly massaging his shoulders. Then down to the tense muscles by his shoulder blades, his back, and then lower back. Kagome gave him a light massage up until she felt him go to sleep. When she was positive that he wouldn't wake up she got off the bed and grabbed a blanket that was thrown over a chair in the room. Kagome walked over to the bed and once again crawled up until she was right next to him, then she lay herself next to him and covered them up with the thick blanket before closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep with ease.

D*I*F*F*E*R*E*N*T

It felt colder now, too cold it seemed. Kagome slowly opened her eyes to see where the warmth had gone and noticed she was in an unfarmiliar place. This most certainly was not her room. The bed was much bigger than hers and the walls were a different color than her dark blue ones. She peeped her head up from over the blanket she was under and noticed that the room was also bigger. She looked out an undraped window and noticed that it was pitch black outside and that the stars were out, the only light coming from the room was from the crackling fire place.

"I see you have awoken, I was hopeing that you wouldn't." Said a dissapointed voice from behind her. Kagome turned around and noticed that it was Touga who was now in his sleeping attire.

"What am I doing in here?" She asked with a weak voice, not yet fully awake.

"You fell asleep on my bed with me this afternoon and it seems we slept through the evening meal. It's now sometime at night as I'm sure you've realized. I'd like it if you slept in my room tonight with me." He told her and handed her one of his sleeping tops, enough to be a short kimono for her. She took it and then groggily walked over to the changing screen. Once she had put it on and thrown her kimono over the top of the screen she walked back over to the bed where Touga was now in, underneath the covers.

"But Kimiko.."

"Is already asleep in your room, it would be a shame for you to wake her." He said and pulled up the covers so she could crawl in. That she did, right up next to him. She was so tired that she nearly instantly fell asleep against him, huddling to his chest. Touga let a rumble come from his throat to coax her into a deeper sleep and then pulled the covers back over them tightly. He took a long wiff of her scent and then closed his eyes ready to go back to sleep. He put one of his clawed hands on her opposite shoulder and pulled her closer instinctively before once again falling into slumber.


	13. Wake Up

**Alright, I know this isn't as long as my chapters usually are...but I had to put this in there ;] I WAS just going to start the next chapter where this one left off, but then i decided that it was both for everybody if i just wrote it in XD Warning: LEMON TIME!!! it made me blush xD so if you don't like lemons, don't recommend you read this chapter lolz Anyways please review and i'll have a new chapter up soon! BTW i don't own Inuyasha or anything affiliated, Rumiko Takahashi does. I only own my hillbilly =B teehee *hugz* luv u all!**

There wasn't a much better feeling in the world than waking up in somebody's arms. When Kagome woke up in the stong warm arms of Touga, she had never felt better in her life. He was still softly sleeping, his face the picture of serenity. She couldn't help but smile up at him. They were facing each other with one of his arms draped over her, keeping her close. Close enough that her chest was pressed up to his chest. That made a blush come to her face.

Kagome didn't want to wake him up, he just looked so peaceful. Plus, the sun hadn't even risen yet. At least from what she could tell, it was still fairly dark but was getting lighter and lighter by the second. So for a while she just layed there with him, listening to his heart beat and steady breathing. They must have been like that for over an hour before Kagome decided they needed to get up.

"Touga." She said softly, but nothing happened. She tried again, saying it louder. Next she tried moving, but that didn't work, seeing as he only pulled her closer. Then an idea struck her, she really could do anything to him right now and he would never know. But there was a slight chance he might wake up from it.

"Well, it's worth a shot." She said to herself and then wiggled her arms free. Kagome then traced them along the markings on his face and then trailed them down his neck and collar bone. Still nothing, but she was enjoying herself. Taking her leg she draped it over his own and then pushed him so now he was laying on his back on the bed, with her on top of him. Suprisingly he still didn't show any signs of waking up, but his arms did loosen from around her.

Smirking Kagome then put his face in between her hands and leaned down, leaving soft kisses trailing from the nape of his neck up to his jaw. Then she nipped a couple times just under his jaw, then licked at the little red marks she left. She still could not detect any signs of him waking up. Once again though, she was having alot of fun. She lifted his head up a bit and then undid the tie around his hair, letting it flow out softly.

"It's so soft." She whispered as she ran her finger through it and nuzzled his neck while smelling it. The thing she was about to do next was bold, but she was so tempted to do it. His lips were taunting her. So slowly she descended upon them until they were touching her own. Testing to see if it was true that people did things in their sleep when they were dreaming about it, she lightly licked his bottom lip, so see if he would open his mouth for her. He didn't, so she nibbled a bit and then pryed it open with her tounge. Imagine her suprise when his hands trailed up to rest on her back and he started kissing her back. Her eyes opened wide from their half lidded state from the initail shock, but then they slid down shut as pleasure pulsated through her body.

The kiss was making her heart flutter, and making an unfarmiliar warmth pool at the pit of her stomach. She broke off to catch her breath, but trailed kisses all over his face while she did so. He heard a low growl coming from him and his hands started exploring her body, running his claws from the tops of her thighs, over her hips and back and he was even daring enough to tickle the sides of her breasts before letting them settle on the middle of her back.

Now Kagome was sure that he was awake, but she was having too much fun to even think of stopping anytime soon. She once again swooped down and captured his mouth in a kiss. There was now a very hot and uncomfortable feeling in between her legs that she was trying to alleviate, but couldn't find a way of how to get rid of the feeling. Kagome could feel a certain part of Touga pressing onto her thigh, and it just willed her to continue on. It seems a peaceful morning had changed into a rather heated scene of passion.

"Goodmorning." She said in between quick kisses to his lips. He looked into her eyes, his eyes tinted slightly pink. She moaned when he once again began to trail his hands over her body. That moan set something off in him because he let a growl escape him, turning her on even more. Touga flipped them over now so that he was on top of her. After a second of kissing her fiercely he got off of her then pushed her up so that now her back was pressed up against the wooden headboard and he was kneeling in front of her.

He then proceeded to take both of her hands with one of his and place it above her head. His other hand was occupied with trailing his claws around her hips. He kissed her once again, swallowing the moans that she was letting out. That just made him all the more fierce and he removed his hand from her hips to then cup her breast. Kagome pulled away and yelped in suprising pleasure. Touga smirked and then began kneeding her flesh, making her squirm. He would have none of that, so he pressed himself closer to her so that she couldn't move. That only made his bulge press tighter against Kagome's stomach, making a pleasured scream come from her mouth.

He licked at her neck and then nibbled a bit, making her grind her hips, desperately needing to relieve the pressure on her nether regions. He looked into her eyes and saw that they were beginning to get slightly red and the blue streaks across her face were becomming jagged. She was nearly ready for him.

**'Mark her, take her now! Ours.'** Growled his inner beast, tugging at his binds trying to get free.

_'Not yet, it isn't the time. We have to stop.'_ He snapped, but couldn't bring himself to stop kissing her. It was even worse when her hips started bucking.

**'Mark her! She's ready and needs release!'** It snarled at him, but once again he refused and tried his hardest to push his beast out of his mind. Finally it was back in it's confines and he could feel that he was in complete control now. But there was one thing his beast was right about, she did need release. From what he heard, it was much harder for a female to alleviate herself than a male. So he would help her with her little problem. He looked back into her eyes and noticed they were glazed over with pink.

Without so much as telling her what he planned on doing, he let go of her hand and then picked her up by the hips. He set her so that she sitting on top of the thick headboard and her legs were resting on top of his shouders.

"What are you doing?" She growled, mad that he was no longer kissing her or paying attention to her body.

"You'll see." He told her with a smirk and then took the bottom of her kimono and lifted it up, hopeing to catch a glimpse of her womanhood. Touga was dissapointed though, as he was met with more cloth seperating him from her womanhood. Snarling in aggitation he cut the light blue lace and then threw the scraps onto the floor. Only then was he blessed with seeing all of her. And was it ever something to behold. Hungrily he put his face closer by her inner thighs and took a long sniff, his errection twitching in longing. But now was not the time for that. This was all about her.

Grasping onto her hips he made sure they wouldn't buck anymore, he then took a quick lick at her already wet folds. It made Kagome go absolutly crazy, she moaned and entangled her fingers in his silver locks. She urged him to go further, and further he went. He then placed his whole mouth over her and sucked lightly, before plunging his long tounge into her slick pussy. She gasped at the sudden intrustion and then half moaned, half screamed, his name. It was absolutly euphoria. He continued to lick around inside of her, once in a while hitting the spot that was extra pleasurable to her.

"Oh, Touga." She moaned out, eyes closed and muscles beginning to tense up. He could tell she was close and he was going to make her first with him the best she had ever had. So he removed one of his hands from her hips and, while still licking and sucking on her, he then started to massage her sensetive clit in cirles with the tips of his two longest fingers. After only a few quick seconds she let out a staggering scream and said his name, then her muscles began to spasm and her inner walls clamped around his tounge. He happily lapped up her juices as they then flowed out of her. When she had rode out the last of her orgasm her body went limp and he lowered her down onto his bed.

"Thank you." She said and cuddled into his pillow, trying to pull him down with her. No matter how much he wanted to, he knew that he could not. For if he did, he was sure that his beast would come out and take her. Neither of them were ready for that, yet.

"I'll be back shortly Kagome, stay here and rest. It is still early." He told her and after a quick kiss on the lips, he slipped out the door into his private hot springs.

He undressed quickly and then submerged himself in the hot water. After relaxing for a few seconds, he began working on the 'problem' that she had given to him.


	14. Idiots

When Touga walked back into his bed chambers he saw a newly dressed Kagome sitting on his bed, legs crossed. He smiled at her, hopeing that she had enjoyed their activities as much as he had. Unfortunately when she looked back up what he saw was absolutly not contentment.

"What is wrong Kagome?" He asked her and sat on the edge of the bed, close to her. She blushed a little bit and looked away from him, refusing to look him in the eyes. She mumbled something softly, so soft even that he couldn't hear it. "What was that? I'm sorry, but I can't hear you."

"I said that I'm sorry, I really shouldn't have done that." She said, still softly, and looked down into her lap. Touga felt as though a wooden stake had been driven through his heart. So she was sorry that they had experienced that together? Kagome had felt absolutly nothing between the two whatsoever? A pained expression crossed his face as he looked back at her. Now she was staring intently at him.

"I don't know what to say, I thought that you had wanted that. I apologize if that was not what you wanted me to do." Touga said with the upmost sincerity. But the pain still came out in his voice. It had deeply hurt him that his mate had not even wanted to participate in the semi-sexual acts that they had just done. What hurt worse though was the fact that she probably realized being with him at all was a mistake, from that one encounter.

Kagome looked up to Touga once again and noticed the sadness and pain that were clear in his eyes and expression. What was he upset about? Being the straight forward kind of person she was, she decided to ask him just that.

"What's the matter?" She asked innocently and he just looked up at her with an eyebrow raised, with a look that said 'are you insane?'.

"I don't know, maybe it's the fact that you realized that being with me was a mistake. Makes me a tad bit worked up I suppose." He said a little more aggressive than he had meant it. It had actually came out a bit harsh. And as soon as he saw the defensive look on her face he realized that that had been an extremely bad decision on his part. Rule number one with women: no matter what, always keep your cool around them and put their feelings up on a pedestal.

"Well maybe you shouldn't go jumping to conclusions about things you don't even have a clue about, it's not like you can detect my every feeling and thought you know!" She huffed out and stood up in her sudden burst of anger. Beneath the tough exterior of anger though, there was a thick coat of confusion and remorse. Perhaps she shouldn't have started this whole conversation in the first place, it hadn't really been a necessary or important topic in the first place. Whats done is done and there shouldn't have to be anything more.

"Clearly, or else I wouldn't have started this fight with you! I'm sick of constantly being in your bad book for completley ridiculous reasons, some of which have no relevance at all to me." Touga said, angry at first but then reeling it all in by the second sentence, desperately wanting to get out of his future mate's aforementioned 'bad book.'

"Well I'm sorry that I'm a female and my hormones are constantly out of wack, but it's not exactly something that I can help. It is natural and cannot be helped, and I'm sorry if I get over emotional or snappy with you, but I just can't keep myself under control. Especially since I've become a demon and my basic impulses have become more, how do I say this," she paused for a moment, "Prominent and persistant."

"Kagome I'm not asking you to change, but maybe it would be best for the both of us if you took things with a calmer demenor and cooler head." Touga tried, hopeing that it would perhaps help is case.

"You are such a hypocrite! Calmer demenor and cooler head? You should try it sometime yourself." She huffed out and stood to her full height before turning on her heel and striding to her door. Touga tried to follow her into the room to try and work things out with her. Unfortunately for him, Kagome had other ideas and slammed the door. So hard in fact, that splinters flew everywhere, even managing to lodge a few within his skin.

Taking a deep breath, trying to calm down as Kagome had suggested, he sat down on the floor from where he stood and just breathed. He didn't try to think, or work out any problems, or even have a single thought on the recent argument or the woman who had caused it. For hours it seemed he just sat there in complete silence and peace. Slowly he began to feel the anger and frustration seep away from his body, off to go torture someone else.

Opening his eyes, Touga found that the sun had moved position only a tad, so it hadn't been that long of a meditation period. That was something odd to him, seeing as it usually took him hours to at least have a fraction of his troubles leave his body. Sighing, he began to feel not anger, but remorse and self loathing. Being completely and totally honest with himself, the argument half _had _in fact been his fault. Without even thinking things out completely and trying to see her side of it, he had jumped to conclusions. She had just shot back at him, rightfully in his opinion, and then he took it another step further to insult her.

"I feel like such a jackass."

*D*I*F*F*E*R*E*N*T*

In the room adjacent to his own, Kagome was sitting in front of one of her many windows, steaming mad. How dare he? He was seriously being a stuborn ass. Jumping to conclusions after her first sentence, what a low move. After what they had just shared, she thought that maybe he would have been a little nicer to her. Men, they are complete and total idiots.


	15. Letters

Things had been tense for days around the palace. In addition to the tense and ackward situation, neither one of the fighting demons had been in a very good mood. Of course, nobody had known what had triggered the fight, so nobody could really take sides either. So everybody was stuck in the middle not knowing what to do at all, so anytime one of the two walked into a room, everybody would go silent and all but ignore them.

Kimiko had even abandoned Kagome in favor of being with Shippo and Rin, at least until her new found friend had calmed down. Kagome's aura was so dark that some of the lower rank demons in the palace had to leave the room when she entered. She sulked around in her room most of the time, until it was time for meals, and even skipped some of those in favor of her deep dark abyss. From what Kimi had said, she had made herself some makeshift curtains and covered up the beautiful windows in her room. Not a very good place to try to calm down in.

Touga was not much better, slumping around and only showing emotion when Kagome was near. And that was only anger now. The first few days he had been remorseful, but after recieving her icy coldness, he had also turned sour and bitter. He was a block of ice, much like Sesshomaru, only worse. Because instead of cold indiference, it was cold _anger. _And everybody was feeling the brunt of it.

All in all, the situation was no good for anybody. Some of the more brave inhabitants had tried to communicate with the two, and the only acknowledgement they had gotten was a cold stare and sometimes a low growl warning them to back off. Nope, not good in the least.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this? Your father will be absolutly furious with us afterwards." Anna said, voice shaking in worried excitement with what they were doing. When she had first heard the plan her mate-to-be had and Kouga had come up with, she was aboslutly ecstatic about it, but was now having some apprehension. Surely the two great Inu's couldn't be duped by such simple trickery?

"Father will not find out until it is too late. By the time our plans have played out, he will no longer feel any disdain, but will probably feel grateful." He said calmly and coolly as he sealed the two envelopes. He handed one to Anna, then kept the other to himself. "You know what to do. Make sure to take the Inu-ookami with you."

"Must you always call people by their titles instead of their names?" She asked him, but only recieved an amused raise of one eyebrow. "Very well, be careful, and don't let him get his hands on you if this doesn't work."

D*I*F*F*E*R*E*N*T

_Dear Touga, _

_I thouroughly regret our earlier disagreement, and wish to reconcile. Meet me in the North dojo before the noon meal._

_Kagome_

Touga growled as he finished the letter. It was clear that this letter was not written from who it had said. It was too cold and emotionless, and not one rant was present. Plus, the faint smell of Kagome wasn't enough to fool him. If it really was her, she would have spent hours contemplating it, therefore it would be drenched in her lovely scent. This smelled like it had been merely rubbed on a possession of hers and then the real scent had been diliberately removed from the paper. Plus, the handwriting used couldn't have been hers. Though it was fairly close, the curly dark letters had lacked one important detail; she always signed her name in a specific way unique to her. No, this was not the work of his Kagome.

Clearly the work of Sesshomaru. His hand tightened into a fist around the piece of parchment so hard that the pale skin over his knuckled turned a more dangerous shade of white. The boy would pay for trying to interfere into his life. He shut his eyes, with time, and tried to calm down his emotions enough so that he could think more clearly on the situation. It had taken him much time to try and rein himself in, but when he finally did, it was enough to come up with a devious plan that he knew his oldest would most definately dislike.

So Touga picked up two pieces of spare paper and his favorite ink pen, then began to write out his revenge on his meddeling son.

D*I*F*F*E*R*E*N*T

Kagome had thought it was odd when both Anna and Rachel had come up to her room after days of avoiding her. She had thought it even stranger when they had given her a letter, and then bounding off to who knows where, without even saying goodbye. And now she knew that there was some sneaking around. The letter had supposedly been written by Touga, and not very convincingly. Whoever had really written this obviously thought that she would automatically follow the instructions of the letter and not even think about the suspiciousness of the text.

She would get back at them later, but for now, she figured was the best time to sort through this mess. It was obvious to everyone that herself and Touga needed to talk, and it really was hurting everyone around them. And she was determined to find a way. Her stomach growled rather loudly and she blushed in embarassment, even though she was alone. Well, she would find a way after lunch.

D*I*F*F*E*R*E*N*T

_Anna, _

_First of all, I would like to give you an early welcome into my family. I never thought that anybody would catch the attention of my eldest son and get the stubborn boy to submit to his feelings. For that I congratulate you. However, I am not exactly pleased with his meddling, and I have a strong feeling that you were somehow involved. You and the others are forgiven for your misbehaviour, but there is another letter enclosed for Sesshomaru. Be sure that he reads it before dawn tomorrow, as it is of great importance._

_Inu No Taisho_

**Sorry that this chapter isn't all that long . and that it's been the first update in a LONG long time! so sorry! *huggles all* thanks for the reviews and favorites though :3 much loves 2 u all! also, i've decided to put my author notes at the bottom from now on ^_^ haha oooooh Touga is up to deviousness ;3 lulz! hope u all like, laters! BTW I don't own Inuyasha or anything affiliated, Rumiko Takahashi does.**


	16. Author's Note

**Sorry that this isn't a chapter you guys, but i just thought that i should warn you all that it's going to be a little while before I get another chapter up. Why you ask? Becasue I broke my finger, broke a chunk of it off to be exact, and my fingers have to be taped together...and it's sorta hard to type ^_^' anyways, i'm really really sorry and i hope u all forgive me for not being able to update! much love to you all *huggles* talk 2 all later!**


	17. Exploration

Sesshomaru's already pale skin paled even more as he read the letter that was written by his father. What it had told was a very cold and calculating threat that would send embarassment to him through all of the lands and drag his pride through the mud. If there were two things that he hated most in the world, it was embarassment and for his pride to be damaged in any way. No, the letter did not specifially say what his father was planning to do, but it didn't need to. His father was wicked enough to come up with something completely haneous, and with the mood he was in lately, things did not bode well for the younger taiyoukai.

"What did it say." Anna asked as she peeked curiously over his shoulder to try and read her betrothed's letter. As soon as she tried it though, he folded it in half quickly and then slipped it into his obi for safe keeping. Feeling deflated she let out a big breath and her shoulders slumped. There hadn't been any sucessful meddling in days, what with Kouga always whisking Rachel away as soon as the sun rose to do some new exciting things with him.

"Do not feel so upset at your friend's absence, I'm sure that your time away from her was not completely unenjoyable." Sesshomaru said shortly as he stood up and strode over to the door of his bedchambers.

"Your father must not be very happy if you're in such a bad mood with me." Anna said, instantly forging him for his snippiness. Having the stress of being the heir to the Western throne must be tough, not to mention having a coniving father like he did, well she wouldn't be in a very good mood either.

"He is not. Come, we are finding the wolf and his woman." Sesshomaru said and walked out of the room in search of the pair.

"Why?" She asked, though she followed him.

"Because if we do not finish my father's paperwork then I will be Japan's fool." Sesshomaru ground out, acting somewhat like a punished puppy. She wasn't at all happy about the work they were about to start, but being with her mate and her friends couldn't be all that bad of a day.

~D~

A few swift knocks were sent to his door, but Kagome recieved no answer. She knew that he was inside, but for some reason he was not opening the door for her. Hell, she was even knocking from the hallway, it wasn't as if he knew who it was on the other side. Perhaps calling was a better strategy.

"Touga?" She said close to the door and knocked once again. Still nothing. Gods that man could sure get on her nerves without even doing anything. Then again, he could also send fire through her veins and conrol her heart like it was a puppet, all while her brain was in a delightfully dead bliss. Now her heart was feeling heavy and guilty and wanting him...and dammit she was going to be with him now!

"He locked the fricken thing?!" She said, still jingling with the doorknob, begging it to open for her. Then she tried picking the lock with one of her claws, but it seemed that she wasn't practiced enough for that quite yet. With a low growl she backed up to the opposite wall and then ran for the door before she went to kick it down. But all that did was absolutly nothing and it shot her right back into the other wall, where she slumped back down to the ground.

"God, what is that thing made out of? A fricken trampoline?" She grumbled to herself. Finally she called upon her poison whip and let it emminate form her fingers before slicing it straight through the crack in the door and 'unjarring' the door so that would open. Though in all actuality she knew that she had just melted the metal dead bolt. Oh well, things could be replaced right?

She then opened the door and looked around for the man she was searching for and finally saw that he was sitting on his windowsill, seemingly in thought.

"Touga?" She asked meekly, suddenly losing all of her courage as soon as she stepped in the door. She saw the muscles stiffen in his back, as she now noticed that he was indeed shirtless, and his breathing stopped. Perhaps he was angry that she was there, or perhaps just suprised?

Finally, after what seemed like hours to her he finally turned and she averted her gaze from him, choosing to look anywhere but at him. Kagome suddenly felt very insecure about herself and tried to tame her thick mass of hair and to straighten out her sleeping yukuta, but nothing seemed to alleviate the feeling of his eyes concentrating on her. It shocked her when she felt a clawed finger curl under her chin and force her to look up to him. Yet, as soon as she was looking up to his half-lidden golden orbs hers wanted to be closed when he draped his mouth over her own in a soft tentative kiss. At first, she tensed up and didn't move a single muscle, not even wanting to close her eyes. Was he really kissing her? Yes, he must be, but why was he? But then, it occurred to her that she really didn't give a damn, because he **was **kissing her. But as soon as she realized this, it was already over, and he was pulling away, his eyes once again half lidded.

"Kagome..." He trailed off, trying to find the words to say to the woman who he realized he had truly missed over their few days of feuding.

"Please, no more apologies. No more being angry, no more guilt, and most importantly no more fighting. I'm willing if you are." She said, feeling so empowered by the kiss that she found her courage again. At first she thought he would refuse, but then a corner of his mouth tilted up revealing a single white fang.

"Of course." He said and once again put his lips to hers. This time though, she was ready and willing. Her eyes drifted closed and her hands came to rest on his broad cheast. Ever so slowly his tongue grazed over her plump lower lip, practically begging her for entrance. Finally she agreed and parted her lips slowly, allowing his appendage to explore every feature of her mouth, and locking it into his memory. He would remember the way her fangs felt against him, how soft and warm her toung was, and the sweet mellow taste that she had about her. Soon enough she was not content with just his explorations, but wanted to conduct her own ministrations, and let her tongue slip out of her own mouth and into his to begin moving around his teeth, fangs, and eventually his own tongue. Once they had met, they began winding and stroking each other, for no other reason than for pleasure and to reaqquaint themselves. Soon enough though, the pair broke away from each other, panting slightly and eyes glazed over.

"I missed you." Kagome admitted and rested her head on Touga's shoulder.

"And I you." He said and began running his hands through her soft almost white hair. For hours it seemed they stood there just inside his doorway, taking each other in. Soon enough though, Kagome's eyes began drooping down and the yawns started coming.

"Come." Touga said and lightly pushed her off of his chest only to claim her hand to lead her over to the bed. He made her sit on the edge before he went back to close and lock the door again. It was then that he realized that the door had been locked before Kagome came in, and now he found he couldn't relock the door. He glanced back at her but found that she was looking off at something else, possibly trying to avoid him. Despite that, he took a heavy chest filled with armor and numberous weapons and strained to put it in front of the door so that nobody would be allowed entrance, he was a very private person you see. Then he sauntered back to the bed layed down on his right side before pulling the still sitting Kagome next to him.

She smiled up at him weakly and he then noticed the bags underneath her eyes and weakness of her aura. Also, there was another yawn. Then he swore he could smell a faint trace of salt water and then light trails on her face of past tears.

"Have you not been well?" He asked her and ran his claws over the now dried paths of tears. Her smile corked a little but and a small 'huff' escaped her throat.

"To tell you the truth, I havn't slept since and before you ask...yes, I also cried." Kagome said, and then she noticed that he looked fairly tired as well. "And yourself?"

"Though I have yet to shed tears, I also havn't rested since our argument." He shifted so that he could grab at the ruffled up silken sheets and pull them over the two. "Let us get some well deserved sleep, shall we?"

"Please." She said and cuddled up closer to his cheast. She always felt better when she was near him, and at the moment sleeping next to him seemed like the best option for her. "Thank you Touga, for not being upset with me any longer."

"Thank you for coming back to me." He said with a low chuckle. "But before you sleep, why does the lock on my door no longer work?" He asked looking down on her, eyebrow raised.

"Don't ask." She grumbled and buried herself in the sheets. Soon enough, her breathing evened and her body took on the serenity of sleep. Touga listned to the steady beating of her heart and listened to each breath she took before he let it slowly lul him into his own sleep.

**Well, i was going to add more to this...but i'm about to fall asleep right on my keyboard u.u it's late. Sorry it took so long, but the finger thing XD but i'm finally fixed and things are awesome again!! i'll try and put up another chapter 2morrow to finish this bit off :3 then things will start getting REALLY good i do belive ;3 hope everyone enjoyed and please review, for it keep me happy lulz I don't own inuyasha or anything affiliated, rumiko takahashi does. so no sue me!! haha *hugz* luvs ya guys, later!**


	18. The Chase

Touga pried his eyes open so he could see his beautiful woman, but was greeted with an empty bed. His eyes narrowed to mere slits and a growl rumbled through his throat. It was never fun to wake up alone, especially after you had just got that someone back who was supposed to be by your side always. He forced himself to calm down and then proceeded to investigate the situation. He took a long sniff and immediatly caught her sweet scent and realized that she had been gone only a few hours, which wasn't too bad considering he enjoyed his sleep much more than most.

He pulled himself out of bed and readjusted his clothing so that he would be presentable to walk around his home. It wouldn't do well to have a stray servant or guest observe more than they needed to of his body. He pushed open the door to Kagome's room and noticed that she was not there. There was however, her lingering scent. Which meant that she was here not too long ago. Touga smiled; he had always loved the hunt.

This was probably the first place she went after she woke up, and he was determined to find out where she had gone from there. He took a nice long smell and immediately picked up on her trail. He followed out her door and into the hallway. The trail lead all the way down the hallway and then left off at the edge of the stairs.

"Of course, she must have jumped down." Touga said to himself, and then followed her lead. Just a few feet before he hit the ground he summoned up his youkai cloud and made a soft landing on the floor. To his amazement, he landed precisely where she had, and found her scent stronger than ever. Since he did not sence her presence anywhere, he figured that she must have gone outside. Although he knew this information he didn't want to just head outside, he needed to follow her trail still. Otherwise, he would not have any clue to where she was.

He took another long whiff and followed his nose right past the front entrance, and then right to the window she had previously escaped from. He smirked, what a little minx he had attracted. Well, what a little minx that had attracted him to be accurate. He hopped out the open window also and began following her trail at the start of the front courtyard. His search eventually ended at the top of the castle gate. He saw her vauge outline sitting at the top of the battlements.

"Kagome, is that you?" He called up to the figure. Their head spun around and down and then a little hand poked out to wave at him. He just waved back, but made no move to join her at the top, not knowing if she wanted the company. Not until she beckoned him did he crouch down before hopping gracefully next to her.

"You found me." Kagome said with a little giggle. He nodded giving her a small grin before sitting cross legged next to her.

"That I did. Now, not that it's odd or anything, but why are you sitting at the top of the battlements?" He asked with a raise of his eyebrow, genuinely curious as to why she chose this location to sit.

"I don't know, just wanted to see what was out beyond the gate. It's so weird to not be out traveling, I think I might be getting a little bit restless to tell you the truth." She said and averted her eyes, not sure how he would take the news that she was uncomfortable being in his home. He just chuckled and pulled her to him with one arm.

"Is that why you're acting so withdrawn? My dear, you could have just told me. If it is as you desire, we can begin traveling at any time. Your wish is my command." He said with a small regal bow. That caused her to burst out laughing, it somewhat reminded her of genie in a bottle. But his words also excited her.

"Really? We can go?" She asked with a shine in her eyes that showed she was extremely excited at the news.

"Of course! We do have to collect those pesky jewel shards after all." Touga said with a small smile. That was his fault, and it was now his responsibility to gather them after all.

"Don't worry about it, remember that I shattered the jewel the first time." Kagome said reassuringly and placed her hand on his knee to try and comfort him. It worked and he leaned into her, nuzzling the groove of her neck with his nose. She just giggled slightly, but leaned into his touch anyways.

All of a sudden they heard someone clearing their throat and both of their heads shot up at the same time, anxious to know their spectator. Standing there to their left side was the gate guard, shifting from foot to foot in nervousness. It was a great offense to spy on the lord and lady of the palace, but he hadn't known that they were up here alone. When he left it was just Lady Kagome.

"Sorry to interrupt. Here are the scrolls you requested Lady Kagome." He said, nervousness still in his voice, and handed her a small silk bag that contained several scrolls from the palace's public study. She smiled at him and took the bag gently.

"Thank you. And please, just Kagome." She said with a smile. He nodded and gave them a stiff bow before walking away awkwardly. Touga turned around shaking his head, guards were so peculiar sometimes.

"What are those for?" He inquired, slipping a claw inside to inspect the scrolls she had sent for. She quickly stole the bag back and held it close to her chest.

"Nothing." She said lying through her teeth. In fact, they were spells that would change her back to her human appearance, but he didn't need to know that.

"Nothing? Then it shouldn't be a problem that I want to see your 'nothing.'" He said, slightly irritated that she was keeping things from him, but mostly just curious.

"Really, it's just not a big deal. Just a few scrolls that I was interested in." She said with her 'convincing' smile. He didn't buy it apparently becasue he just gave her an exasperated look before once more making a grab for the bag she still held to her chest. She 'eeped' and hopped up and away from him, intent on keeping the bag and it's contents safe from him. She looked at him and noticed that his eyes seemed to glow and that a playful smile graced his handsome face.

"Oh no.." She exclaimed before hopping off the battlement.

"Oh yes!" He called to her before following her lead. He loved a challenge, especially when there was a chase involved. As soon as his feet touched solid ground he began to run after her, intent on catching his prey and reaping the benefits. She was quicker than he anticipated however, and so he actually had to make a slight effort to catch her. Just as she was about to jump into the palace through the window, she overshot it and bounced off the wall, faking him out. He skidded to a stop with a smirk. "Little minx."

He followed her around a bend and chased her twice around the pond before finally making an attempt to tackle her in his grasp. He leaped at her, but just as his arms were about to swing around her torso her animalistic instincts kicked in. Just at that precise moment she made a quick hop to the right and left him once more in the dust. Litterally, he had lost his balance and had landed hands and knees on the ground. He gave a soft growl at the failed attempt, but jumped up once more.

By the time Touga caught up again she was already in the castle dodging servants, trying to get to the stairs as quickly as possible. He caught a flash of silver hair and made a mad dash for it. Just as she was in sight again she began to hop her way up the stairs, trying desperately to beat the taiyoukai to a room. Whose room he didn't know.

"I'm coming for you Kagome, might as well give up now!" He called out playfully, but all he received was a laugh acompanied with her sticking her tongue out at him. He rolled his own eyes and continued bounding up the stairs towards her, determined to beat her to whatever her destination was.

He was basically breathing down her neck, but she wasn't giving up yet. No, she ran right past his room door and swung hers open wide before slamming it shut with ferver. He could hear her labored breathing on the other end as soon as she had effectively locked her door and pressed her body against it to try and keep him out. He could easily overpower her and get in, but he would humor her. For now.

"Come on now Kagome, please let me in. I promise I'll be nice." He tempted her in his most convincing voice that he could manage, though he was also breathing slightly harder than normal.

"No way! There's no way you're getting in here!" She yelled through the thick wooden door, the pouch still clutched to her chest. Instead of hearing a whitty comback from him, she was met with silence. Kagome thought that slightly curious, but then her eyes popped open wide with realization. She made a mad dash for the door connecting Touga's room with hers, but he was already propped up against the doorway, a victorious smirk plastered on his smug face.

"I win." He said before snatching the bag from her hands. She made a reach for the bag, but he effectively kept it from her by putting it high above her head, just torturing her more.

"Jerk! Give it back! They're mine!" She yelped at him, not at all amused by his antics.

"Technically they came from my library, in my palace, so they are therefore mine. Not yours." He said with a smirk at her dejected sigh. "And I plan on reading them. Well, at least see what they are about."

"Fine." She finally said and sat down on her bed, pouting. He resisted tossing the bag and kissing her senseless, for she looked so tempting with her lips pouting like that. He beat temptation though and opened the bag. He pulled out the first scroll he saw and unrolled it quickly. His eyes skimmed it quickly before looking at her, quite puzzled.

"Why did you request scrolls on concealment spells?"

**Well that's all for now folks ;D somewhat cliffie? WHO KNOWS! Haha there are several directions i could take from here, and to be honest with ya I don't even know which one im gonna choose xD thanks agian to all the readers and commenters! I love you all, and sorry it took so long to update! Also, I don't own Inuyasha or anything affiliated, Rumiko Takahashi does. T.T**


	19. Distraction Techniques

Kagome's eyes bugged out of her head, suprised that he found out what the scrolls were about before she could snatch them back. Touga was giving her a look of pure puzzlement and something else unrecognizable. Whatever the emotion he was feeling, she didn't like the looks of it, and wanted it to stop immediately.

"Do we really have to get into it right now?" She asked him, hopeing that she could just brush off the topic like that.

"Yes, I would appreciate it very much to know what you have scrolls on concealment spells, and quite a few from the looks of it." He said, his suspicion taking many different directions all at once. He decided not to delve into the possibilities just yet, knowing just what happens when you assumed things.

Kagome's mind searched for something to avoid the topic with. She really did not want to talk about her plans just yet, she wanted to wait for the right time to lay the situaiton on Touga. So for now, she desperately tried to figure something out to distract him. Just then something flickered in her brain.

"I promise to tell you later, but first, I don't believe you have ever fully been shown my room since I made some adjustments to it. Care for a tour?" She asked, adding a hint of sultriness to her voice while half lidding her eyes, teasing him. The one way to distract any male? Seduction of course.

"Kagome really, I do believe the situation concerning these scrolls should be discussed at the soonest possibe time. Which would be now." Touga said, denying her offer, whatever it may have implied. Not that he didn't want to. In fact, it was quite hard to turn down the offer she had just made him. Now his brain was coming up with possibilities to what she could have had in mind.

"But Touga," She pleaded, batting her eyes and pouting with her lips "I really hoped that you would want to see them." She stepped closer to him and placed one hand where his sleeping yukuta opened. "I worked so hard to get them just right." She whispered in his ear, eyes trying to temp the more beastial side of him. Slowly she saw his composure crumble and he gently removed her hand from him before placing the removed scroll back with the others and put it on the bedside table.

"See, this will be so much more fun. Too bad it's nearly dark out, we won't have much time to play." She said with a teasing smile while leading him to the window overlooking the outter courtyard.

"My dear Kagome, don't you know that dark is when the beasts all come out?" He said huskily into her ear while combing her hair down her back. Kagome giggled at the ligth tickling of his claws down her back. "Now, where exactly are these changes?"

"Well this is just a brand new change you see," She said and drew away from him to being slowly drawing the curtains closed. "Having them closed allows the room to become darker, even though it is night. So I had some candles brought up." She said and motioned to the white candles scattered about the room. She took great care in lighting all of them, giving the room a soft glow since the fireplace wasn't lit tonight.

"Hmmm, I like it." Touga said somewhat out of it, mesmirized by the woman gliding sensually across the room back towards him.

"Thank you, would you like to see some more?" At his nod she led him over to her closet and opened it, revealing some new outfits. "These are all new that have been givin to me since I got here, as gifts. Would you like to see one of my new sleeping yukutas?"

"I believe I would enjoy that very much." He said, excitement lacing his voice. Was this an open invitation to see her naked?

"What's your favorite color?" She asked him flipping through each one, not being able to decide.

"I enjoy both black and gold." He said as he sat down on the side of her bed. He made sure to still have a clear view of her back as she skimmed through her clothes.

"Great, I've got just the thing then. You can look while I change into it, but no touching." She said over her shoulder, smirking when she saw a raised eyebrow at the last comment. "Not yet."

That he could deal with Touga thought. In slow motion it seemed Kagome undid her obi and slowly let it fall down to the floor. Next to come off was her outter kimono, which floated down to the ground around her feet. Before she let slip her inner kimono she took out the two pins that were holding her hair up, letting it cascade down her back in waves after being held up for so long. Unfortunately this prevented him from catching a glimpse of her sweet skin as she turned around from him and all she could see was her silver hair as she let her inner kimono drop. He did however get to see her long lean legs glide over to where her sleeping yukuta was.

He had to close his eyes at her request then. As open as she seemed at this moment, the fact was that she was still extremely modest and downright shy towards males and any kind of sexual situations. Including showing her naked form to anybody. He then felt her approach and opened his eyes. In front of him Kagom was standing in a mid-thigh length sleeping yukuta looking garment. But instead of having sleeves and being slightly baggy like the normal, this one was almost form fitting and the only thing keeping it from falling off her body were thin straps over her shoulders. It was black with a golden design trailing from the bottom left of the garment to the top right.

"How do you like it?" She asked, and then was the moment he finally caught the shyness in her voice. He could also sense some nervousness.

"I love it, thought it isn't traditional is it?" He asked with a warm chuckle before taking her small hands in his. She nodded and then took her hands back so that she could crawl to her side of the bed and get underneath the thick covers. She patted the spot next to her and lifted up the sheets, inviting him in her bed. The thought made him smile.

He stood up from the bed and removed his outter robe so that he was just in his sleeping yukuta also and crawled underneath the sheets she was holding up. Kagome then let them fall overtop his body. He was laying on his side, as was she, and they were looking into each others eyes for a few split seconds before slowly moving their faces closer to each other. Just when the tips of their noses were about to touch Touga interrupted.

"I believe I found out what is new about your bed." Touga said and watched as Kagome looked at him confused.

"But, there's nothing new about my bed."

"Yes there is. I'm in it." He said before pulling her towards him for a soft kiss.

*D*I*F*F*E*R*E*N*T*

Kagome waited for Touga to drift off before slowly leaning over him to grab the bag containing all the scrolls on concealment spells. Carefully she lifted it off the table and drew it above Touga and towards herselft. He rustled a bit in her sleep, causing her breath to hitch and her movements to stop, but it wore off quickly and he was back into his dead sleep. Kagome let out a miniscule sigh of relief before pulling the bag to her cheast and slowly removing herself from Touga and slipping out of bed.

Quick as a bunny she slid the scrolls underneath her bed. She looked up to see that thankfully Touga was still sound asleep. Before returning to his side though she tiptoed around the room and blew out all the candles she had previously lit. Kami, that had to be the longest distraction she had ever come up with. Well, that she could think of right now. They had kissed for what seemed forever before they both finally were exhausted of it and decided to get some rest. Then she had to steady her breathing and heart rate enough to convince him she was alseep before he finally drifted off.

"Kagome..?" She heard him mumble from the bed and her heart jumped into her throat in fright. "What are you doing?" He asked, his voice gruff from disuse while sleeping.

She quickly calmed down, relieved that he had just woken up and hadn't seen her hide the scrolls. "Just blowing out the candles." She said softly before climbing back into his open arms. He pulled her even closer before once again letting sleep claim him. First thing in the morning though, he was going to have an explanation for those scrolls.

_**Lol OH distraction techniques XD very cleaver if i don't say so myself, and yes, Kagome still has SOME modesty left. Though i think Touga is going to fix that quite quickly ;3 Sorry this chapter didn't reveal much. Just sort of a filler, something to quench all of your thirst for fanfiction XD more will be out soon, promise. Thanks again to all the readers, especially reviewers. LOVE U ALL! *huggles* also, i don't own Inuyasha, the talented Rumiko Takahashi does. **_


	20. Absolutly Not

"Wake up." She heard someone say in her ear, but she was much too tired to pay attention so she just kept on pretending like she was asleep. Obviously the person didn't care that she was still tired, seeing as he once again told her to get up.

"Just five more minutes.." She mumbled and rolled onto her stomach so that she was laying head first in her pillow. She felt whoever it was get off of her bed and she sighed in relief. By the time that someone came back she was already back in her dreamland, fast asleep. But suddenly she was at full attention, sopping wet and freezing to her core.

"What the hell?" She screamed as she popped up to sit. Her teeth were chattering and her eyes were bugging out. Standing there at the side of the bed was Touga, smirking like the devil he was. She glared at him.

"Cold Kagome?" He asked her and looked down. She followed his gaze, and when she saw what he was looking at her face heated up instantly and she scrambled to fold her arms across her chest.

"Pervert." She mumbled. "What was that for?"

"You wouldn't wake up, so I took extreme measures." He said with a smile.

"Yeah, I noticed that. By why are you waking me up? Isn't it ususally the other way around?" She asked him with a rise of her eyebrow.

"On most days, yes. But today we have something to discuss, in particular certain scrolls and why someone would need to look into them." Kagome's face paled, realizing she had been caught.

"Did you really think I would be fooled that easily? Just because I sometimes become," he searched for the right word "distracted, doesn't mean that I don't remember my original goal." He told her while raising an eyebrow of his own.

"Yeah, I guess it was kinda silly to try that out. But at least you enjoyed it?" She asked him with an apologetic smile.

"Very much." He told her and leaned down to give her a kiss.

"Sorry." She said softly as their lips parted fractionally.

"Forgiven." He replied and gave her one more kiss before straightening out and walking into her closet. "Now come and get dressed so that we may discuss those scrolls, which I retreived from underneath your bed."

Kagome's mind spun, how was she going to tell him? How was she going to tell any of them? It was simply not something that she could fully describe in words, it had to be shown. Wait, shown! That's how she would explain.

"Touga, I can't really explain why I need those scrolls until I show you the problem first." He gave her a strange look as she got out of bed and walked to her closet to retrieve something to wear. She chose a sky blue kimono with a lime green obi and shooed him out of the closet so that she could change.

"We're going to my home today, if that's alright with you." She said through the screen door.

"I suppose that's alright, but don't you think this is a rather bad time to return to your home? We do have things to discuss you know." He told her a little bit impatiently.

"Don't worry, everything will make sense soon enough." She said with a smile as she walked out from the closet. She reached for his hand and held it tightly in her own. He gave her hand a squeeze and put his other hand on the back of her neck. Kagome giggled slightly before giving him a quick peck on the lips. "Come on, we've got to hurry though if we want to make it home in time for dinner. Plus, I can't wait to show Mama how much I've changed! It's only been...actually, I don't actually know exactly how much time it's been since I've been back home."

Touga rolled his eyes playfully at her tendency to get off the subject very quickly. But it was just another part of the wonderful woman in front of him, and he embraced every moment he got to spend with her. Even if they were to spend the rest of their long lives together, he hoped.

"Come along love, I wish to meet your family. But will the well willingly accept me and bring me forward into your era?" He wondered with curiosity. He saw her eyebrows crunch together at that thought.

"Well, I'm not entirely sure about that. Inuyasha can pass through to my era, and I think that's because we share a bond through the necklace he wears. So, if I give you a jewel," she said and took one out of the vile sitting on her bedside table and put it in his awaiting palm, "you should be able to travel though, because I'm the Shikon Miko. Right?"

"Your ability to solve problems this quickly never ceases to amaze me, you're quite good at it." He told her with a smile and tucked the jewel into the breast of his yakuta. "But let us go inform the others that we are leaving, and I must inform Sesshomaru and the general that we are leaving, so they know that they are responsible for the palace while we are absent."

"Alright. Plus I want to tell Shippo, Rin, and Kimiko goodbye. And to tell them to behave." She said with a smirk of her own. Rin was a relatively well behaved child, but when coupled with the rambunctios fox and squirell yokai even she had become somewhat corrupt. The three were bound to get into some kind of trouble while the couple was in absense. Not only was she going to tell them to behave, but also to warn them that Sesshomaru-sama wouldn't be as lenient with their punishments as Touga and herself would be.

"Wise decision." He told her and they went their seperate ways to find the beings that they were looking for. They agreed to meet up at the front gate as soon as they were done giving out their quick instructions.

D*I*F*F*E*R*E*N*T

"Are you ready?" Kagome asked with a smile that made it clear up into her eyes with the excitement. Touga however didn't realize the anxiety she was trying to hide.

"Quite." He said and scooped her into his arms before jumping over the lip of the well. He braced himself to hit the bottom of the dry well, but right before he was sure they were going to land suddenly a blue light engulfed them and he experienced the feeling of being weightless, without gravity. Yet, as soon as that feeling started it ended, and the two landed softly at the bottom of the well, but this time approximately five hundred years into the future.

Kagome gave him a look and he realized that he was just standing there doing nothing. He tried to fight off a slight flush of embarassment and quickly jumped up and over the side of the bone eater's well. He set her down to her feet gently and started walking towards the door when he was stopped by a tug on his yukuta.

"What?" He asked when he looked back, truly confused as to why he was being stopped.

"You have to leave your sword and armor in here, it's worse enough we don't have any modern clothing to wear to the house. Not that there's many people that could see us, but still." She told him while removing the bow and quiver of arrows from off her back. She further explained when he gave her a stubborn look. "You can't wear those kinds of things here, people will look at you strangely. We no longer have need to wear armor or carry around large swords or other weapons. It just isn't neccessary, or sensible for that manner. Now off with it." She told him sternly. He gave her a miniature glare but complied.

"See, was that really that hard?" She asked him with a smile as she watched him carefully set his belongings on one of the few empty shelved left in the well house. He grumbled to himself, but linked her smaller arm with his none the less.

As soon as they exited they were suddenly assaulted with all the modern day 'scents.' Touga's eyes resembled dinner plates as he quickly cupped a hand to his nose to avoid having to breath in the obnoxious chemical smells. Kagome however wasn't much for consoleing him because she was in a much worse state. Because she was still so new to her new demonic 'amenities' she was hit with the stench twice as hard. This caused her stomach to turn and her head to ache tremendously. She began to gag before she began a brisk walk to her childhood home.

Without even knocking the duo piled in through the back door and slammed it quickly behind them. Touga then proceeded to tentatively take a sniff before panting in several deep breaths, seeing as he held his the whole way in. Kagome slumped to the floor mid-gag and was breathing in the air greedily, eyes closed and trying to rid her head of the ache it had aquired. When the two finally caught their bearring they looked up to see three sets of eyes staring at them like they were completely insane.

"Um, hello. You must be friends of Kagome and Inuyasha..." Satomi began while she looked upon them wide-eyed. It looked as if she had been right in the middle of chopping waterchestnut for the dinner she was preparing for the two males sitting on the table playing a boardgame.

"Not quite, hi Mama." Kagome said with a smile small as she scratched the back of her head. Her mother tilted her head to the side a bit and her eyes softened considerably, though the curiosity did not leave them.

"Of course, who else but my daughter would have such ridiculous antics." She said with a small laugh as she set down her knife and wiped her delicate hands on her apron that was tied around her waist. "But may I question as to why you look to be, a demon? And who your companion is?"

Kagome picked herself up from off the floor and quickly brushed herself off trying to look at least somewhat presentable to her family. She looked at Touga, and after a nod, she dived into the tale of how her life had spiraled into chaos and back from the time she had left them up until now.

D*I*F*F*E*R*E*N*T

"So you think that you can trick and decieve my precious granddaughter into becoming one of you, you, demons! Just so that you ask to court her without her family's permission?" Kagome heard her grandfather saying from the living room. She could also see him flailing his arms about through the shoji screen door that seperated the kitchen and them.

"It wasn't a trick, Kagome did that of her own accord without me even knowing. And it was never my intention to disrespect her and her family by not asking you for her hand in marriage. So, may I court your granddaughter?" Touga negotiated with the stubborn old priest. Silence was held for a few moments as Kagome and Satomi leaned in towards the door, waiting for his response.

"Absolutly not!" He shreiked and the two women sighed, exasperated at the old man. "You can't just go around and do that, there are certain requirements in order to marry my precious only granddaughter!"

"But gramps, what about Akemi and Sai?" Souta piped up from beside his grandfather, silent up until that point except for the occasional 'ya' or 'you tell him gramps.' Kagome could practically see the look her grandfather must have shot Souta with.

"Whatever those requirements might be, I will be sure to fulfil each and every one of them. No matter the cost. Kagome is the most important thing in the world to me, along with my sons, and I would do anything for the approval for her and her family." Touga said and bowed low to her grandfather and his little minion.

"No matter what your grandfather might say Kagome, I think that he's a very charming man. Hold onto that one." She said with a kind, knowing smile that only a mother can show.

"Thanks Mama, and don't worry. I'll be holding onto him for quite some time." She said and blew her now silver bangs out of her eyes.

"I still can't believe that my beautiful daughter has become such a beautiful..." She stopped and searched for the right word. "Demon? Or is it customary to be called a demoness instead?"

"Well I don't think it matters much, but I think it's kind of the norm to use 'demoness.'" Kagome said with a small shrug; she still wasn't exactly farmiliar with demon culture. She had much to learn still, and several people still to meet, including Touga's ex-mate and the three other lords that ruled over feudal Japan.

Her mother nodded and sat up from her chair and resumed making dinner, plus a little extra for their unexpected guests. Kagome stood up and tied back her yukuta sleeves so that she could help her mother with the cooking while she waited for her intended to win over her stubborn male family. She was certain that Touga would win over her grandfather and Souta, it was just a matter of time. The man had a tounge of silver and the wits to know just how to use it.

Soon enough the three males reentered the kitchen, just in time for dinner, and sat down at their respective places. Kagome gave a knowing look to Touga and flashed him an apolagetic smile while she set his plate and chopsticks before him. While her daughter set the table Satomi brought her giant stirfry pan over and set it on the wooden block in the middle of the table. After everyone had been seated and quieted they all bowed their heads for a silent prayer and then scooped some of their meal onto their plates.

"Well Kagome, I believe that Lord Touga has something he wishes to ask you." Her grandfather said as nonchalantly as he could possibly manage as he popped a chunk of chicken into his mouth.

"Oh, and what might that be?" She asked as if she didn't know what they were talking about while she was stuck in the kitchen. Touga set down his chopsticks and looked her in the eyes.

"Kagome, I would be honored if you would court this Touga, if you are willing to accept." He said in such a monotone voice that it reminded her of Sesshomaru.

"I accept your court Lord Touga, thank you." She said with a coy smile and lowered her eyes as a sign of respect.

"Oh how wonderful, Kagome has finally found herself a husband. Won't it be wonderful to have little grandchildren running around Father?" Satomi said innocently, truly delighted at the tought of having small children in the house once more. That thought however made Kagome blush a deep rose red that reached up to the end of her now pointed ears. She looked at Touga who was just smirking, which prompted her to blush even more.

"Indeed, I intend to help raise multiple pups with your daughter in the future. Would that please you, Satomi-Sama?" Touga asked her, happy to play along just to torment her daugher.

"Oh, that would be absolutly fabulous! How many were you thinking on having? Five, six possibly?" She asked with a happy gleam to her chestnut brown eyes.

"Oh, at least seven or eight. The more children, the better." Touga said with a gleaming smile. Satomi clapped her hands happily and her grandfather smiled at the thought of possibly having great grandchildren, even though not even half an hour ago he was down right shooting her intended down. Souta however gave her a taunting look and proceeded to laugh at her expense.

"Well, I don't think that we'll be having children anytime soon. Remember that we still have to find the rest of the jewel shards, and we can't very well go looking for shards with a newborn tagging along." Kagome reminded them, trying to save herself a little bit of embarassment.

D*I*F*F*E*R*E*N*T

Kagome pouted as they walked towards the staircase of their home. Touga followed after her with a mischevious glint in his eyes.

"Come now Kagome, it was all in fun. Don't be upset with me Koi." He said as he tried to look her in the eyes, but she would just stare off in a different direction, nose pointed towards the sky in displeasure.

"It didn't seem that way. Not only was my family embarassing me, but you were doing the same thing back! You're all jerks." She said to him as she hopped her way up to the top floor where their bedrooms were. He landed next to her soon after.

"Please Kagome, I'm sorry. I didn't think it would hurt your feelings this much." He said and followed her to her bedroom like a little puppy who had just peed on the white carpet.

"Hmp." She said and slammed the door in his face. He rolled his eyes at her childish behavior and knocked on the door several times before receiving an irritated 'what?'

"May I please come in Koi?" He begged her, he hated when she was mad at him. A muffled 'fine.' He slowly opened the door to reveal her already in a small, black satin nightie she had brought from her home in the present. She was laying on top of the covers on her bed, curled up in herself, pouty lip still in place.

He walked over and sad behind her and nuzzled the back of her neck with his nose and stroked her soft silver hair. "My apologies, in the future I will no longer shamelessly embrass you." She sighed slowly and turned around to face him, still laying down.

"It's alright, I just hate being embarassed. It is just so...embarassing. For lack of better word." She said with a half smile as she looked up into his warm armber pools. He smiled and bent down to kiss her forehead. She giggled and cupped his cheek with the palm of her hand.

"I love you, even when you embarass the blush right out of me."

"And I love you, even when you become upset with me unneccesarilly." He teased her, smirk firmly in place showing the tips of his small white fangs. Kagome rolled her eyes at him before giving a chaste kiss. He got up to go change in his room before coming back to his demoness. He picked her up bridal style and tucked her into his own bed before situating himself next to her.

"There's one thing we didn't accomplish on our trip to the future however." Touga said gavely. When she looked at him with a puzzled expression he continued. "Why we were there in the first place?"

"Oh, right." Kagome said and frowned. "Well, did you notice any youkai auras while we were in my time?"

**Yay! Forced myself to write another chapter :D Been sick ALL WEEKEND and after reading fanfiction the whole time and watching 'Inception'(freaky awesome mind-trip!) inspiration finally struck! huzza! and, there u go ;3 Hope everyone likes, and thank you all once again for faving, subscribing, and reviewing! it makes me so happy inside and i can't stress enough how thankful i am :3 BTW I don't own Inuyasha or anything affiliated, Rumiko Takahashi does T.T till next time, laters!**


	21. A Hunting We Will Go

"But, how could that have even happened? Demons are so much stronger than humans, it makes absolutly no sense at all to me." Touga said nearly dumbfounded, unable to sleep now with his troubled thoughts.

"I don't know, it's still all really confusing to me as well. I'm not sure of how the demon race was wiped out, there's not even a scrap of historical texts on it. Trust me, I've checked." Kagome said, sitting up in bed.

"And you're positive that you've never encountered a demon in the present time?"

"One hundred percent positive. Never even felt an aura. But when I saw those scrolls in the library it made me wonder. Maybe the demons made it to that time after all, and nobody realizes it because they've masked their looks and auras in some way to match a humans. That would make them completly undetectable, and therefore normal. I just never got to read those scrolls yet, so I'm a little bit in the dark of wheater that's a possibility or if the demons were actually completely exterminated by humans." Kagome explained while reaching over to grab the scrolls. They were exteremly long and the wording was extremely hard to make out because it was so old and the words were confusing to her.

"Those scrolls are extrelemly old, it may take a while to uncover what they are really saying." Touga warned her. "I tried reading them as a small child, trying to find something to use as a prank."

Kagome laughed and rolled her eyes at the tought of a small Touga wreaking havok on the inhabitants of the palace. Her thoughts began to wonder about how ill mannered their children would become if they got their father's playful temperment. Wait, why was she thinking about children? Their children?

"Perhaps we should hire a scholar to come and decode the ancient writings, and then look upon them ourselves? Then we would have time to go looking for shards. After all, that's what we need to be focusing on right now. I know you sent out a few of your followers to make sure that they havn't been used by lesser demons, but it's only a matter of time before someone gets a hold of a shard and becomes taken with the power." Kagome warned.

"Agreed, we should begin our travels for the shards immediately. If we both go, along with Inuyasha, Kouga, and Rachel then we should be able to intercept the shards before any harm is done." Touga agreed with his betrothed before he let out a long drawn out yawn. Although he was still deeply troubled with the whole 'no more demon' business, he was beginning to feel a littel bit more sleepy.

"We should probably get some sleep if we're going to make preperations to leave tomorrow." Kagome said and snuggled down into the covers. Touga nodded his head in agreement and wrapped an arm around his lovely woman before closing his eyes and pinching the flame of their bedside candle. Tomorrow they could worry about all their troubles, but tonight they would sleep in peace and without care.

*D*

"Oh, don't be sad Ah-Un I just don't want to have you in any more danger is all. You've been such a good steed, you deserve a nice rest at home." Kagome said as she petted both their heads, trying to sooth the troubled dragon. They were slightly upset that they weren't the ones that would be accompanying the gang on their quest for shards. Instead, they would be taking the larger black dragon Ginsee. Inuyasha helped strap the last pack to Ginsee's back and tightened it before walking over to Kagome.

"Come on Kags, we're about ready to leave." He said and escorted her towards the rest of the group. She waved once more to the dragon and blew them a kiss before she went to the rest of the group.

"Which way were we starting again?" Rachel asked as she sniffed around their surroundings. Kouga was nearby, also surveying the way he thought would be best to proceed.

"North would be my best guess, that was where we were at when the Jewel was shattered...again." Kagome said and stole a quick glance at Touga. He shrugged slightly and gave a half smile, not too concerned with the matter.

"Then let's head north!" Rachel said enthusiastically and started leaping that way. Everyone else followed in the crisp dawn light towards what was certain to be an adventure.

*D*

"So if you know that none of the shards have been used for wrong doing, then why didn't the patrol scouts take them while they had the chance? Did they actually see the shards?" Kouga inquired while they all sat down around the fire.

"Well that's mainly because I believed that the evilness of the jewel, and therefore the shards, would take over the scouts. Then, we would have an even bigger problem on our hands, would we not?" Touga said as he began to lay out a few blankets for himself and Kagome.

Kagome sat looking into the fire, in silent contemplation. The thought of children had been eating at her ever since last night. It was custom for women her age to have at least two children by now, but she was a demon now. Did demons run on the same biological clock as humans? Was she limited in her time of fertility, or did she have many years or decades even before her time to bear children ran out. Honestly it made her nervous, she knew that searching for the jewel could take several years, and what if she had difficulty with conceiving the child? It could take several years to prepare herself not only physically, but mentally to have offspring. It was one of the few things that she had known in her life that she would have, children was something that she consistantly adored. She was either taking them in and caring for them, babysitting, or thinking about having children of her own. Never before had she given it this much though, but maybe it was her adoration for Touga that brought it on. Perhaps finding a man that she could actually see herself having a family with brought on these feelings.

"Kagome, are you ready for sleep? If your feelings are correct about the shards being so close, then our day shall be highly eventful." Touga said with a smile and offered his hand to help her up. After a second she took it and allowed him to pull her to her feet and guide her to their sleeping arrangements. She layed down next to him, but was mostly silent except for small one word replies.

*D*

Touga knew that something was bothering her, but he couldn't tell what it was exactly. She wasn't exactly angry, or sad from her scent or form her aura. Confused, frustrated maybe? But when he probed her for an answer she would just brush it off, so he assumed that she didn't want to speak of it. So he let it go, for now at least.

*D*

"These seem alot...smaller than I remember them." Kouga pronounced as he examined the small jewel fragment Kagome had sealed inside of a glass jar.

"You're right, they do seem extrordinarily smaller than before. I wonder if it was because the object that shattered the jewel this time was more powerful, therefore causing the break to be more severe." Kagome pondered, a little more chatty than she was the night before. "But from what I can tell there are about the same ammount of shards in this general area as there were before. So maybe this is just an abnormal piece."

"That seems like the most plausible answer to me. Well, let's continue to search. The faster we collect the shards and make them complete again, the faster we can all live in leasure back at the fortress." Touga exclaimed and began moving forward for the quest.

They went through the same process as they had been doing all day. Run to where Kagome said to, search for the jewel once they all could feel the power, and then when they located it, Kagome would place it in the sealed glass jar she kept in her sash around her waist. Honestly it was a boring routine, but it was kept somewhat entertaining by the cheerful banter of the companions. Plus, by the end of the day they had attained 14 shards in total. This process was alot simpler than before, maybe it was because of the demon efficency. Plus, her jewel detection sensing seemed to be heightened after her transformation.

"Maybe this won't take as long as I thought it would.." Kagome muttered to herself.

**Whoa, sorry for the really long awaited and short update. My bad, woopsies. But hey, trying to be a full time student and also working a full time job really does kill your free time. My apologies my loyal readers (if there are any of you left) and I can't promise an update soon, but all of us can only hope lol. Anyways, thanks so much for reading and reviewing, i love you all! AND Rumiko Takahashi owns Inuyasha and anything affiliated. Not me. Sadly.**


	22. When The Moon Fell In Love With The Sun

"That's absolutly horrible!" Kagome exclaimed tears in her eyes, hands covering her mouth.

"Yes, but it's not that out of the ordinary. The servants slip and fall dramatically a few times a year, there's really nothing you or anybody can do about it." Touga exclaimed as he read through the rest of the document sent to him by one of the guards at the palace. He was reading through his weekly update from Sesshomaru when that little tidbit showed up, and Kagome had caught wind of it.

"What do you mean 'nothing you can do'? That's just cruel, of course there is! If it was better constructed in the servents quarters and their domains then these sort of problems would hardly ever occur! It makes me sick to my stomach to know that the people that serve us dutifully every day are suffering like this constantly. Have you ever spent a day as a servant? Well it's quite humbling to say the least, and I believe that we need to improve the way they are treated." Kagome stated finally.

"Kagome," Touga said and put his hand over hers as they sat leaning against a large tree. "I would love to help all of the servants, but there's no way. I just don't have the time, none of us do. Unfortunately there are just more important things on the scedule at the moment." Touga told her softly, but her eyes lighted up with a fire.

"How dare you sit there and tell me that, when I know for a fact that somebody could do that within a matter of weeks."

"Well if you're so sure that it could happen, why don't you go back and practice as you preach?" Touga suggested, getting slightly aggitated at her persistance.

"Fine, I'll prove to you that all it takes is one person to change a situation. I'll go back to the fortress and map out the changes and then I'll carry them out myself. I'll be leaving in the morning." Kagome said with a sense of finality and stood up, wiping off the back of her kimono. Touga's eyes widened at her proclomation and stood up after her.

"That's not what I meant Kagome, we can fix things at the palace when we return. If you're especially adament I will even send a message to Sesshomaru to fix the problem momentarily.." He began, but was cut off.

"Momentarily? No, there needs to be a permanent solution, you can't keep putting this off Touga. And if you won't fix the problem, I will."

"But we need you here, I need you here." Her eyes softened and she walked over to his body, letting him envelope her in an embrace.

"Everyone has been doing fine without me here thusfar, the shards are giving off enough energy that even all of you can sense it. As far as you, you've been without me for nearly your whole life. I'm sure a few weeks will not kill you." She told him, truly serious about leaving.

"But now I've had you, and I never want to let you go." He whispered in her ear, making her shiver.

His confession immediately made her heart melt, how could somebody who was so insensitive be such a romantic? It was vexing how he had such a hold over her, and her over him. It was almost scary how close they were coming in just a few months. But their strong attraction to each other was not held over the importance of hundreds of lives in danger in their own home. No, she had to go to help those in need before she put her own needs and wants first.

"I know, it's going to be hard leaving, but it's the best for everyone. Plus Kimiko and Shippo need me there with them. It's not right that they have to stay with a nursemaid while I'm out here parading around where I'm not even needed." Kagome told him, never forgetting about the children she had left behind. "Also, Sango and Miroku will be leaving soon, and I don't want to neglect any time with them, considering...they won't live that much longer in comparison to me."

"Don't think about that koi, you'll have pleanty of time with your friends. Plus, they are happy, you should be happy for them." Touga told her, stroking her hair.

"I know, but I'm being selfish. I'm going to miss them!" Kagome said, almost in tears over her decision.

Touga held her out at arms length and studied her face. He could tell that she was truly driven to do what she wanted, that being going back to their home and fix the problems. She was very hands on like that, she always wanted to fix situations herself so that she knew that they were being done right. She was so determined, it was refreshing from the women that he had once dealt with. Akemi was kind, but she wasn't exactly worried about issues that didn't directly involve her. Izayoi pretended she cared, but never acted on the supposed care. She was so different than anyone he'd ever enocountered. She balanced him, and true it was cliche to say so: but he believed Kagome was his true sole mate.

"I wish I could be selfish and keep you here with me." He told her before draping his lips over hers. She responded immediately and put her right hand on his cheek and stepping closer to him. He put his hands on her hips and tried his hardest to display his affecting through that one kiss. Before they knew it though, it had ended and they were left staring at each other breathless.

"I'm going to miss that. I'm going to miss you so much." She told him and buried her face into his neck, a sign of affection between inu's.

"And I you. But if this is something you feel you have to do, then I nor anyone else can stop you. We'll be back together soon enough, and I hope you don't think me insensitive enough as not to write." He said with a smile as he rubbed comforting circles into her back. Although he was acting more calm than her, inside of him was utter turmoil. If being away from her didn't kill him, then he was sure that he was truly indestructable.

"You had better write, because if my affections go unrequited I'm going to burn your bed." She jested, which had him raising an eyebrow.

"Oh really? If my affections go unrequited I'm not going to come back." He warned her jokingly. Her eyes widened before he pouted.

"You would come back and you know it. How can you resist this?" She said motioning to her body, head to toe. He followed her hands as she moved, and honestly couldn't argue. She was the epitome of perfection, and he couldn't resist her or any of her requests.

"Just promise that you'll miss me too?" She asked with pleading eyes, striving for affeciton.

"It goes unsaid, I'll miss you more than the sun misses the moon." He said and kissed her once again.

*D*

"Don't forget about me." Inuyasha told her and gave her a friendly hug before letting her go, just to have Rachel nearly tackle her to the ground.

"Are you SURE you want to leave?" She asked with long eyelashes batting pitifully.

"Pretty sure, I'm gonna miss you." She said and hugged the woman back. "But we'll see each other before you know it." She nodded and finally let go, just for her beau to give her a quick hug.

"Good luck, see you soon Kagome." Kouga told her and she nodded before he pulled away. By this time she was starting to tear up quite a bit, but was still struggling to stay strong. Last but certainly not least, was Touga; which she knew was going to be the hardest goodbye of all. She just stood their and stared back at him for a while.

"Dang, do you guys feel that? I'm pretty sure a jewel is nearby, we had better go get it." Rachel said in an awkward voice. Kouga began to say something but she subdued it by elbowing him in the arm before waving to her and running off, the other two males running after her.

"Well that wasn't suspicious." Kagome said lightly, trying to keep the mood up. Unfortunately it didn't work for either of them. Touga then began to purpousely stride towards her before pulling her into a strong embrace. Tears began to stream down her face, efficiantly soiling his yukuta. "S-sorry." She stammered and tried to wipe her eyes, unsuccesfully seeing as she was still bawling.

"Please don't cry, I can't take it." He told her and buried his nose in her sweetly scented hair. "I wish you weren't to leave. I don't know how I'm giong to live without you."

"I know, I'm not sure how I'm going to get through the days either. But I must go, no matter how much I'll miss you and want to be by your side." She said shakily, her eyes sparkling with more unshed tears. He couldn't help himself, and stole a kiss from her, pleased as she leaned into him. It calmed them both, momentarily.

"Kagome, I want you to know that I'm in love with you."

"I love you too." She said immediately, she didn't even have to think about it. They smiled at each other and hugged loosely before one more slowly romantic kiss, and they detangled themselves from the other.

"I'll miss you, and I'll love you every second." Kagome said as she climbed atop the dragon that was sent for her.

"Be safe my love, and I'll miss and love you eternally." Touga said as he watched her fly away, waving and blowing kisses until she dissapeared from sight. It suprised him when he felt a wetness begin to trail down his cheeks. He touched it with his fingers and was suprised to find tears. Odd, he hadn't cried since he had broken his leg when he was only 75.

*D*

Sobs echoes throughout the night sky as Kagome continued on her way home. When had she started thinking of the palace as home she didn't know, but honestly it didnt matter. She just wanted to get their soon so she had something to comfort her. Touga was still running through her mind, unrelentlessly. She didn't think it would hurt this much to be away from him, but it felt like her heart had been ripped out of her chest and stayed with him other than coming along with her.

Soon enough the fortress came into view and she tried to stop her crying, and was suprised that she was able to. When they landed near the stable Kagome was greeted by the stable man and helped off. After thanking him she strode towards the fortress and then to the kitchen. It was very late, so she assumed that nobody was up. It was nearly 3:30 at night and she was right, nobody was up and about. Which was good, because she wasn't exactly in the mood to be around people at the moment.

"People aren't allowed in the kitchen at this time of night." She heard from behind her as she walked into the large room. She recognized it as the servant that had given her so much trouble when she first arrived at the palace.

"Just because you're with Lord Touga now doesn't mean you just get to do whatever you want." She said to her as she grabbed a glass of water and drank the whole thing. She walked right out the door and past the servant, not in the mood for her bullshit at the moment.

"You can't just ignore me, you know it's true!" Her shrill voice called after her. Finally Kagome had had enough and turned around towards the woman.

"Fuck you, how's that for not being ignored?" She spit out and then jumped up the stairs towards her room.

However, after she entered her room she wanted to cry again. It smelled like her, there wasn't even a trace of Touga's scent, and nothing to remind her of him. So she stripped down until she was completely nude and then strode into his adjacent room, and was enveloped in his wonderful scent, and even his aura was embeded in the room. She went to his closet and put on one of his smaller robes and then crawled into the covers of his bed and fell asleep nearly instantly, still thinking about her one and only demon.


End file.
